Ten years after it was first submitted, the Taylor Shellfish Co. conditional use permit to convert 25.5 acres in Burley Lagoon from oysters and clams to geoducks was approved by the Pierce County Deputy Hearing Examiner Nov. 26, 2024.
For Taylor, it was an end to a long process that involved public input, expert opinion and changes in their operations to address community concerns.
For residents on the shoreline of Burley Lagoon, the decision indicates the strength of the shellfish industry to overcome personal objections and the potential adverse impact of adding a new crop to the existing operation.
“The project is a preferred use of the shoreline and advances broader statewide interests,” said Bill Dewey, Taylor’s director of public affairs. “It will not have unacceptable adverse impacts to the natural environment or other users and will provide important ecological and socio-economic benefits.”
Dewey said that Jerry Yamashita, who operated the shellfish farm until Taylor began leasing it in 2012, had planned to submit an application to farm geoducks in Burley Lagoon, but that the process was more than he could afford.
“I grew up watching Jerry’s operation,” said Wendy Ferrell, whose family has lived on the lagoon for five generations. “He didn’t use modern gear and was part of the community.” When Taylor took over, it cleaned up old equipment, she said, but also scraped the beach to allow for more intensive farming and added protective nets. “It’s an industrial operation now,” she said.
“This hearing process is very biased toward the industrial shellfish industry,” said Laura Hendricks, director of the Coalition to Save Puget Sound. “At the same time, citizens must fundraise over $100,00 to fight each new permit.”
The Tyee Oyster Co. first farmed Burley Lagoon in the 1930s, Western Oyster Properties purchased the tidelands in 1952, and Taylor has leased 300 acres since 2012, actively cultivating between 80 and 200 acres of oysters and manilla clams.
In the spring of 2014, Taylor submitted a permit application to convert 25.5 acres of its oyster and manilla clam operation to geoducks. Because the site differed from other permitted locations — the acreage was larger, the location was more enclosed and more densely populated — Pierce County required an environmental impact statement.
Taylor paid for the consultants who produced the required EIS while the Pierce County Planning and Public Works Department supervised the work. The final statement, issued Jan. 6, 2023, concluded that the proposed conversion would not have a significant impact on biological resources or ecological functions.
Friends of Burley Lagoon, the Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat, Tahoma Audubon Society, and Friends of Pierce County filed an appeal. They raised concerns about the impact on surrounding wildlife, biodiversity, salmon, forage fish and eelgrass, the risk of plastic debris and microplastics, noise and the EIS process itself.
The Pierce County Deputy Hearing Examiner, Sharon Rice, held public hearings over a week-long period in May 2024. Much of the appellants’ testimony came from people who live in the area. Experts testified on behalf of the applicant.
Rice issued her 148-page determination Nov. 26. For each point raised by the appellants, she found in favor of Taylor. “The Coalition will support an appeal if that is what the Burley citizens decide,” Hendricks said, adding that it would probably cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Heather McFarlane, board president of Friends of Burley Lagoon, said “We are at the point of exhaustion. We have limited resources, and we can’t afford a lawyer.”
The income from geoduck aquaculture was noted in the final decision. “The project would cultivate geoduck clams for human consumption, some of which would be consumed locally, and much of which would be exported, thereby addressing the national trade deficit, which the Applicant submitted totals $20.3 billion. The Applicant submitted the trade deficit can be sustainably addressed through shellfish aquaculture, which is recognized by the Washington Shellfish Initiative as a critical clean water industry.”
“I am aware of some claims that have been made in the past by geoduck farm opponents claiming this is a ‘get rich’ scheme, and I can confirm those claims are inaccurate,” Dewey said. “Geoducks take five to eight years to mature to market size, so even for the smallest and simplest farm, geoduck aquaculture is a long-term investment requiring significant initial commitment of resources.”
Key Peninsula News published an article (“Economics of Geoduck Aquaculture,” Feb. 2015) that concluded, using data from the Department of Natural Resources, that an acre of geoducks could generate up to $1 million every five years. The calculation was based on the value of geoducks in 2004, which had doubled by 2021.
“Geoduck farming is a small and competitive industry,” Dewey said. “Based on 25-plus years of experience farming geoduck, Vice President Bill Taylor did share that he felt the DNR projection cited in your article is overly optimistic.”
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