Friends of Burley Lagoon (FOBL) and Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat (Coalition) have appealed a Conditional Use Permit that would allow the largest geoduck aquaculture installation in the county. A federal judge in Seattle in 2019 revoked 900 permits and asked that all new permits have a Cumulative Impact Analysis.
The appeal asks the state Shorelines Hearings Board to review the decisions made by the Pierce County Hearing Examiner and the Department of Ecology. Here again, we have neighbors and environmental groups taking these government agencies to court, asking them to obey the state and federal laws.
For citizen groups, the cost of such appeals with legal representation and expert witnesses can be prohibitive (over $40,000). So FOBL and Coalition felt compelled to pursue this appeal pro se (without an attorney). Currently, fundraising efforts continue in the anticipation of compensating needed expert witnesses and any future legal representation. The shellfish industry relies on expert witnesses to present their positions, and citizen groups need to respond with expert witnesses that present the opposite side. The emerging science on geoduck aquaculture is contradictory and must be interpreted for the courts by experts.
Again, we have another example of a lack of environmental justice in this country. Most disappointing is the inability of government agencies to enforce county and federal laws when a corporation applies for a Conditional Use Permit.
Your help in funding this appeal is vital to the Puget Sound ecosystem. The proposed aquaculture installation would be sited in an estuary that contains Chinook salmon-bearing streams, which are crucial to the food web and especially our Southern Resident Killer Whales.
Friends of Burley Lagoon is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Send tax-deductible donations via their website at: www.friendsofburleylagoon.org
Or, you can mail check to:
Friends of Burley Lagoon
P.O. Box 363
Burley, WA 98322-0363