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Yahoo
25-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Skagit Delta tidegate repair awaits resolve of legal action
Land lies protected for farming by dikes and tidegates in Skagit County, as the islands of the San Juan Archipelago rise on the horizon. (Photo by Salish Current) This article was first published by the Salish Current. If the tidegates on No Name Slough — an estuary at the Skagit River delta — appear to be stained, crusted and a bit sagging with age, it could be because they are 60 years old. If they fail, 450 acres of prime farmland could be inundated with salt water spilling in from Padilla Bay, and lost to farming. The Skagit Delta tidegates have a simple purpose: to drain farmland when the tide goes out, then block incoming tides when they come lapping at the gate. The Skagit River delta produces about 90% of the agricultural value of all farms in Skagit County. Some of the highest value crops — spinach and cabbage seed, wheat and barley — grow on the soil protected by the diking districts. The gates have made the Skagit River delta one of the state's most productive farmland areas, acre for acre, for 140 years. Now, the future of farming on 60,000 acres of delta land protected by a network of dikes and 100 tidegates can no longer be assumed. The issue is now being fought in federal court. A lawsuit brought by Skagit Dike, Drainage and Irrigation Improvement District 12 seeks to overturn a biological opinion by National Marine Fisheries Service, or NMFS, that the district says imposed onerous impact fees for merely repairing existing infrastructure. The fate of the Skagit delta's highly fertile farmland is inextricably intertwined with that of the Chinook salmon, classified as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, or ESA. The district lost its request for summary judgement in the first round on April 28, when U.S. District Court Judge Brian A. Tsuchida ruled for NMFS on all key claims. The decision was based on review of documents filed by both sides. Tsuchida's decision mooted his earlier decision in 2024 that the district could proceed with repairs because NMFS had taken too long in its environmental review of the tidegate repair permit. At issue, notes the ruling, is 'NMFS' conclusion that the No Name Slough tidegate project would further reduce the quality and perpetuate poor conditions of nearshore and estuary habitat for Puget Sound Chinook for an additional 50 years' — thus necessitating habitat mitigation and restoration. In bringing suit, District 12 contends the project is 'a simple tidegate replacement which does not expand the footprint of existing structures, and provides benefits to fish.' Commissioners of the district voted on May 12 to file an appeal with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A hearing before a three-judge appeals panel is not yet scheduled. Jenna Friebel, executive director of the consortium that represents all 12 diking districts, said her organization 'disagrees with and is disappointed with the district court's decision.' A rule that NMFS adopted in November of 2020 imposes substantial mitigation fees for any nearshore infrastructure repairs, from tidegates to Port of Seattle piers. The No Name Slough tidegates are the first in the Skagit delta system to face the consequences of the rule. Before the change, the Skagit Tidegate Fish Initiative, or TFI, in 2010 established a system whereby tidegate improvements could be made without having to go to NMFS for permission for every individual project. The Diking District 12 tidegate replacement on No Name Slough has been pending for four years, since the district's original application for a permit approval from NMFS. The ruling expands the baseline for determining effects of a repair project from the immediate vicinity of the work to the entire Puget Sound range of Chinook salmon. The next step under ESA, unless conditions for Chinook recovery show improvement, would be to declare the species endangered, triggering more stringent rules to protect the fish. The rule also has been extended to include repairs to public infrastructure such as piers, waterfront bulkheads, ports and any other project that NMFS decides must involve mitigation fees. For District 12, that would add $2.5 million in mitigation fees on top of whatever it costs to replace the tidegate and repairs to a section of the dike around it. What NMFS wants to have mitigated is the subject of a lawsuit the district filed against the agency last December. Tsuchida sided with the federal fisheries agency on virtually every issue, citing at one point the 'deference' given to NMFS as the source of expertise and scientific knowledge on the ESA. Despite disagreement with the ruling, 'our member districts remain committed to working with state and federal resource agencies and local tribes to develop solutions to the complex at hand that are grounded in facts and science,' Friebel said. Senior Civil Prosecutor Will Honea, who deals with natural resource issues, said that Skagit County government has no direct stake in the District 12 lawsuit against NMFS. 'However,' he said, 'We are concerned that NMFS's single-minded focus on punitive regulatory measures is preventing productive progress in the Skagit, damaging the Skagit fisheries resource, hampering our ability to prepare for sea level rise and climate change and creating unnecessary conflict in our community.' NMFS officials have declined to comment on the ruling. The TFI was intended to make the process of obtaining permits for work on tidegates easier for applicants. The Army Corps of Engineers was empowered to issue permits directly for tidegate repairs under terms of the TFI approved by NMFS. It created an oversight board consisting of dike district representatives, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and Skagit County, state Fish and Wildlife and NMFS, with a staff member acting as coordinator. The program included a system by which districts could acquire 'credits' by doing work that made 'operational improvements' to their tidegate systems. Districts could do the work even if they did not have any credits stored. The Swinomish objected, complaining that the districts were using the operational improvements to do work that was more than the system should have allowed. The tribe gave 60 days notice of intent to sue NMFS. The tribe threatened to sue the Corps of Engineers for approving the District 12 work after its own finding that the project would have minimal effect on the threatened Chinook.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Yahoo
Walk-on ferry between Anacortes and San Juans launches on trial basis
A whale watch company with a spare vessel is operating the demonstration of passenger-only ferry service from Anacortes to the San Juan Islands until June 30. (Photo by Tom Banse) This article was first published by the Salish Current. For the next 10 weeks, people can travel to and from the scenic San Juan Islands for free as the archipelago tests the waters of county-run, passenger-only ferry service. State money is paying for a twice-daily roundtrip between the three most populous islands and Anacortes using a chartered whale watching tour boat. The boat trial grew out of frustration with unreliable state ferry service in recent years. But even if the county's walk-on ferry proves popular, it's unclear how it could be sustained. 'Until people in San Juan County feel that they can count on the [state] ferries like they did 10 years ago,' San Juan County Council Chair Kari McVeigh said, 'this is a big deal.' McVeigh rode along on the inaugural round trip between Friday Harbor and downtown Anacortes. The foot ferry made intermediate stops at Orcas Landing and Lopez Island in each direction. McVeigh noted the boat was very punctual, as hoped for. Ridership was light during the opening weekend of service due to the short-notice startup and limited pre-launch publicity. Captain Brian Goodremont steered the 55-foot tour boat Sea Lion across sun-splashed seas at about the same speed as the state ferries – 17 knots – on an unusually warm Good Friday to inaugurate the service. 'I think it is mostly going to be islanders that use this service,' said Goodremont, who owns San Juan Safaris, the contracted passenger-only ferry operator. 'As we get closer to peak season for visitors – once school is out – I can see visitors using it as an alternative.' As part of the same state-funded pilot project, San Juan County also contracted with a different local tour company for emergency interisland water taxi service, which will sail only when the state interisland ferry is expected to be out of service for more than four hours. That standby water taxi contract similarly expires on June 30. In recent weeks, state ferry system leaders have told the public and their overseers in the state Legislature that the car ferries have turned the corner on reliability. Washington State Ferries chief Steve Nevey and his deputy told a state Senate panel last month that crewing is back to pre-pandemic levels and cancellations significantly reduced. 'We're clearly going in the right direction,' deputy John Vezina testified. 'We're clearing the maintenance backlog. We are on the path to building new boats. But it's been tough for our customers and we are aware of that.' The San Juans to Anacortes passenger-only ferry pilot project was designed with the needs of ferry-dependent islanders at the top of mind, but the service should be appealing to visitors from the mainland too. The foot ferry terminates in downtown Anacortes at the Cap Sante Marina where islanders can walk to a wide variety of businesses, restaurants and medical/dental clinics. Daytrippers headed to the San Juans can park at the marina for free, unlike at the state ferry Anacortes terminal. The Sea Lion vessel is certified for 49 passengers, but Goodremont said it will be limited to 35 riders for the time being so that everyone has access to the heated, indoor seating if desired. Orcas Island resident Sooz Stahl was pleased to hear about the new county-run ferry as she waited in the sun for the state ferry to take her to her job running the post office on neighboring Shaw Island. 'I think it's fantastic,' Stahl said. 'They should support ways and plans for people to get here and to visit the islands without a car.' Stahl said she was unsure whether she would use the walk-on ferry during its 10-week tryout. The county-provided service skips Shaw Island because the isle lacks a public dock suitable for the passenger-only ferry. A potential drawback of the foot ferry for visitors is that there is no public transit or Uber/Lyft on the islands. Friday Harbor is quite walkable, but Orcas Landing and the Lopez dropoff at Odlin County Park are a good distance from the main attractions of their respective islands. Traditional taxis are available on San Juan and Orcas islands, though. Bikes can be brought on board the passenger boat with prior reservation. For travelers going between Friday Harbor and the mainland, the walk-on ferry takes longer than Washington State Ferries because of the intermediate stops. In years past, Bellingham was proposed as the mainland terminus for a San Juan Islands passenger-only ferry run. But San Juan County officials only considered Anacortes as the mainland landing this time around because the point of the state funding was to backstop the state ferry service. The temporary passenger-only ferry is fare-free because the state is footing the bill. Former Gov. Jay Inslee awarded the county $1.5 million in discretionary emergency relief funds last September after hearing a litany of complaints from islanders about missed appointments, stranded schoolchildren and other disruptions caused by cancelled state ferry sailings. Just recently, the state Department of Commerce denied the county's request to spend leftover grant funds after the state's fiscal year ends on June 30 so this walk-on ferry service could be extended into peak tourist season in July. Passengers who use the free foot ferry will be surveyed to provide the county with data that it can then use to make the case for a permanent service, if that seems justified. An ongoing passenger-only run would require a big subsidy if the fares were to be kept reasonable. McVeigh said San Juan County does not currently have the deep pockets to shoulder those operating costs. San Juan Safaris' contract to operate the grant-funded temporary foot ferry costs $7,647.50 per day, which adds up quickly to more than half a million dollars for the ten-and-a-half week duration of the pilot project. Earlier this year at the Legislature, San Juan County council members testified in support of a bill dubbed the Mosquito Fleet Act to launch new, locally operated walk-on ferry routes across Puget Sound. But that proposal was stripped of funding last month and then died in the state Senate at the beginning of April. Senate Transportation Committee Chair Marko Liias, D-Edmonds, said the state government is not in a position to subsidize new ferry services in the near to medium term. 'The (2025-27) budget is really focused on making sure that our mainstay Washington State Ferries service is healthy, strong and sustainable,' Liias said in late March. 'We want to make sure that the service we're providing is top notch again and we're investing to get there. Passenger service in the future makes sense, but for now we're focused on the core of WSF service.' Absent further state support, another option would be federal grant funding. But McVeigh observed the chances of getting that look grim given the current budget-slashing tenor in the nation's capital. A third option would be to turn to local voters for approval to create a county transit district with taxing authority, as Kitsap County did previously. However, McVeigh said it is very premature to go down that path. 'We're not there yet,' McVeigh said. 'This is really just proof-of-concept, this pilot. We want to look at the data. We want to see how our constituents feel about this.' For now, the council chair from Friday Harbor said people should try out the limited-term passenger service and let the county know what they think. It's use it or lose it time, to paraphrase her. 'It's a free ferry ride for now,' McVeigh said. 'Come, come, come.' What: Anacortes-San Juan Islands passenger-only ferry service When: Limited-duration from April 18 to June 30, 2025 Cost: Free to ride. Foot passengers save $16.50 each using the county-run ferry to get to the San Juans instead of Washington State Ferries. Mainland terminus: Cap Sante Marina 'B' Dock, downtown Anacortes Island stops: Lopez (Odlin County Park dock), Orcas Landing, Friday Harbor (Spring St. Dock) Schedule: One morning round trip starting in Friday Harbor and similarly, one afternoon round trip, seven days per week For more info and to make reservations, which are strongly recommended: The Salish Current is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, online local news organization serving Whatcom, San Juan and Skagit counties. Based in Bellingham, the publication serves 400,000 residents and tens of thousands of annual visitors to the three-county area.
