Washington Public Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark on Thursday said that he refuses to sign a previously negotiated lease agreement with Taylor Shellfish to grow geoducks on tidelands in Totten Inlet.
Washington’s largest shellfish company, based in Shelton, Wash., agreed to pay USD 630,000 (EUR 486,000) in back rent and a USD 1.3 million (EUR 1 million) fine for growing the giant surf clams on state-owned tidelands without permission, which it claims was inadvertent.
On Jan. 12, Taylor signed a five-year lease to farm shellfish on the tidelands with Doug Southerland, the former commissioner who left office the next day. The agreement was signed 11 days before the deadline for public comment.
“The public was shut out of this process,” said Goldmark. “I believe that public input should be an important component of our decisions at [the Department of Natural Resources]. When a state agency asks for the public’s input when the issue is already decided, it is a violation of the public’s trust.”
Goldmark wants to renegotiate the lease and damage claim settlement separately. According to the agreement, Taylor, which donated more than USD 3,500 (EUR 2,700) to Sutherland’s failed re-election campaign, would not have to pay the fine without the five-year lease.
Bill Dewey, spokesman for Taylor Shellfish, said Goldmark’s announcement took the company by surprise.
“The lease was integral to the settlement,” said Dewey. “We’re being [vilified] and he hasn’t even sat down with us to hear our side of the story.”
Dewey says the tidelands in question contain about 300,000 geoducks, some of which are ready to harvest now and others that won’t be ready for five years, as well as 240,000 oysters.
“We thought we had resolved the issue and had an amicable solution for the state and for Taylor,” said Dewey.
