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Hearing examiner approves permits for proposed Burley Lagoon geoduck farm

The Pierce County Hearing Examiner on Tuesday evening, Nov. 26, released its decision approving permits for Taylor Shellfish’s proposed 25.5 acre geoduck farm in Burley Lagoon. The hearing examiner also rejected an appeal of the farm’s final environmental impact statement (FEIS) brought by community and environmental groups.

The decision to grant the Shoreline Substantial Development Permit and Shoreline Conditional Use Permit, and to reject FEIS appeal, came nearly six months after the conclusion of public hearings on the aquaculture project, which seeks to introduce cultivation of the giant geoduck clam Panopea Generosa into tidelands now used to produce oysters and Manila clams.

Next steps

The geoduck farm’s conditional use permit now goes before the Washington Department of Ecology for review.

That process does not include hearings or any mechanism to include new public comment. Instead, it addresses “the entirety of the permit record, including any public comments the county received, along with the review criteria for conditional use permits outlined in state rule to make our decision,” said Colleen Keltz, a DOE spokesperson.

Opponents of the project have 21 days from the conclusion of the DOE review to appeal the hearing examiner’s decisions to the state’s Shorelines Hearings Board.

148-page decision

Representatives of the organizations opposed to the project – including Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat, Friends of Burley Lagoon, Tahoma Audubon Society, and Friends of Pierce County – either could not be reached or declined to immediately comment on the decision.

Bruce Morse, of Friends of Burley Lagoon, noted that it would take until after the holiday weekend to review the 148-page hearing examiner’s decision.

The hearing examiner’s decision “correctly determined that the project’s shoreline permits should be issued,” a press release issued by Taylor Shellfish said.

“The project is a preferred use of the shoreline and advances broader statewide interests, will not have unacceptable adverse impacts to the natural environment or other users, and will provide important ecological and socio-economic benefits,” the press release read.

Burley Lagoon, which stretches over some 358 acres of tidelands and estuary north of the Purdy Bridge, has been home to shellfish farming for nearly a century. But environmentalists and local residents say the geoduck farming proposed there represents a higher-intensity form of aquaculture that threatens to damage the bay’s ecosystem as well as the greater Puget Sound food web.

Geoduck farming

In geoduck farming, the clams spend their first two years in plastic tubes that jut several inches out of the mud at intervals of 1 to 1.5 feet, or up to 43,560 tubes per acre. Opponents point to the technology used in raising geoducks, including the tubes, high density polyethylene (HDPE) tube caps, predator nets and zip ties, as a source of microplastics “that have probable, significant, and adverse environmental impacts that cannot be effectively mitigated by industry practices and compliances,” according to the FEIS appeal brief filed by opponents.

The brief said the proposed geoduck farm would destroy or prevent the return of eelgrass that provides habitat for forage fish — including sand lance, herring, anchovy and juvenile rockfish — on which larger species depend for food.

Geoducks planted in tubes in Squamish Harbor west of the Hood Canal Bridge. Taylor Shellfish proposes similar geoduck farming for Burley Lagoon.

Opponents also decried the aesthetic impact on the lagoon of the plastic tubes and other gear. They raised concerns that noise accompanying geoduck farming is inconsistent with surrounding residential uses and would frighten away birds. (Opponents charge that noise levels and impact on sea life have already risen significantly since Taylor Shellfish took over aquaculture in Burley Lagoon in 2012 and increased the intensity of shellfish farming there.)

In their appeal of the FEIS, opponents challenged what they characterized as that document’s baseline premise that Taylor Shellfish’s proposed geoduck farm would “convert” the 25.5 acres to geoduck farming from clam and oyster cultivation. They said the project’s use of 8+ subtidal acres could not be viewed as a conversion because no evidence proves the subtidal areas of Burley Lagoon have ever been farmed.

The decision

In its conclusions, the hearing examiner’s decision dismissed the argument that the FEIS erred in establishing a baseline for considering the proposed geoduck farm’s impact. “Credible evidence in the record demonstrates that the impact analysis [in the FEIS] was performed considering the actual, on-the-ground conditions” at the site, it said.

“The Draft EIS thoroughly evaluated the project’s environmental impacts with respect to the scoped issues of sediments, water quality, aquatic vegetation, invertebrates and forage fish, fish and wildlife, noise, recreation, and aesthetics,” the decision said. “The Final EIS thoroughly responds to comments and is informed by input from credible technical experts.”

Responding to concerns raised over potential damage to eelgrass in the lagoon, the decision said opponents “did not demonstrate that there was previously rooted eelgrass established in or near” the site proposed for geoduck aquaculture. Rather, evidence suggested that the eelgrass reported there “most likely drifted in from other areas.”

“Properly conducted eelgrass surveys have consistently found that eelgrass does not occur within or near the project sites, and the closest documented eelgrass bed is 800 feet away,” the hearing examiner wrote.

Microplastics

The FEIS included adequate discussion of the potential impact the geoduck farm’s proposed use of plastic “with respect to debris, microplastics, and leaching of chemicals,” the hearing examiner concluded.

“The EIS identifies several mitigation measures to avoid and/or minimize potential adverse impacts associated with plastics and concludes that, as mitigated, no significant adverse impacts would occur,” the decision said.

“Appellants did not call any witnesses qualified to opine on the project’s potential to generate microplastics or to result in chemicals leaching from geoduck gear.” On the other hand, a qualified toxicologist, testifying on behalf of Taylor Shellfish, “provided credible testimony that the EIS contains a reasonably thorough discussion of the project’s use of plastics and that, as mitigated, it will not result in significant impacts,” the decision said.

Responding to appellants’ claim that the FEIS did not adequately address the project’s effect on critical forage fish habitat, the hearing examiner said, “the  EIS thoroughly addresses the project’s potential to adversely impact forage fish, including through gear placement and planting, maintenance and grow-out, gear removal, and harvest; it concludes that with implementation of identified mitigation measures, no significant impacts would result.”

Taylor Shellfish wants to switch from farming Manila clams and oysters in Burley Lagoon to geoducks. Ed Friedrich / Gig Harbor Now

Geoduck farm under consideration for a decade

If approved, the operation in Burley Lagoon would be the largest geoduck farm in Pierce County. It has been under consideration since 2014, when Taylor Shellfish first submitted application materials.

Asked when, given the hearing examiner’s decision yesterday, Taylor Shellfish foresees starting geoduck farming in Burley Lagoon, Public Affairs Director Bill Dewey said: “I can’t say right now when the geoduck farm would be installed, but the first step in that process would involve placing mesh nursery tubes in the substrate in which geoduck seed would be planted.”

Taylor Shellfish is a fifth-generation family-owned shellfish farm headquartered in Shelton. It employs more than 700 people and operates on 14,000 acres of tidelands along Puget Sound, the Washington coast and British Columbia, and also operates hatchery and nursery facilities in Hawaii and California, and four oyster bars in Seattle and Vancouver, the company’s press release said.