Draft 2025 Zostera japonica Management General Permit - Formal Public Comment Period

Dear Shawn:

Our law firm represents Twin Harbors Waterkeeper. On behalf of this organization, attached is a comment letter that provides comments on the Washington Department of Ecology's draft 2025 General National Pollutant Discharge Elimination S...↓ystem Permit for Managing Zostera japonica on Commercial Clam Beds in Willapa Bay. Please respond to the attached comment letter in writing and include the letter and its Exhibit A (also attached) in the administrative record for this matter.

Thank you,
Erica Proulx
Kampmeier & Knutsen, PLLC
705 Second Avenue, Suite 901
Seattle, Washington 98104
(206) 739-5184
erica@kampmeierknutsen.com
↓

For Willapa Bay you have been handling this five year extension request. I am using my Husband's email because my cell phone has failed. ATandT was vandalized so cannot get a new one. I am Christine W. Barkhurst. While I a...↓gree with my husband's comments, I am making my comments on birds of the nearshore land. Swallows, hermit thrush, are gone! Plenty before spraying began. Thrush sang every evening, now NEVER! Our family frequented Willapa Bay Area, especially Nemah, since late 1970s. These and other birds were numerous. When we retired in 2002, we moved here full time in a house we built. Our yard and long driveway were covered with birds. When Spruce and later alder seeds fell, birds were all over them. Now alder seeds cover the ground and vehicles heavily. Not one junco! Unreal. Swallows were thick over the Nemah Flats, eating brine flies and getting mud for their nests. After imazamox began, now zero! Swallows built a nest in barn eaves and fought each year with starlings over it. Now no fights, nest never used. All this coincides with onset of imazamox in 2014 and 2015. No Eelgrass, no insects, no birds! Your EIS was defective in not predicting this, and not even addressing the loss of herring spawning beds, which it did not map and to this day does not inventory spawning mass. You apparently rely upon WDFW to advise on above critical habitat issues, they do not, as we all know. Everywhere else on Coast, just not Willapa Bay where you spray. No baseline, no monitoring, no problem!!! Your EIS clearly did not baseline key elements such as ESA and species of concern. ESA Orca, marbled murrelet, and green Sturgeon are or were here and or fed by our food chain. You apparently rely upon WDFW, now independently evaluated by Ruckelhause as " disfunctional". They never baselined Herring spawning mass, and never check it going forward, except for the one South of Nahcotta. 90% loss/ failure there! You cannot continue to remove Eelgrass on this missing foundation. You must charter a real Environmental Impact statement group, including public impacted by these losses, restore what is lost, and utilizing good oceanography which now exists to guide restoration, and see if there is any location where Eelgrass could be removed without the losses staring us in the face right now. Chemical experience and currents tell us the past approach after chemical application only passes inspections that do not take place.
The birds have not survived the previous " no baseline, no monitoring, no problem" approach.↓

After the meeting and speaking to others about this permit, my request for changes to this proposed permit is as follows:

1. Pre and post Spraying of zostera marina monitoring is required for quality compliance. Without documentation, there is no proo...↓f of the damage or lack there of- of areas outside the spray zone. Charge the land owner a fee for the service.

2. Re-evaluation of zostera japonica as to the genuine nature of "noxious weed" classification. 

If it's providing abundant habitat for marine life in general, It has been miss-classified to suit the needs of the clam growers. 

3. My concern for loss of eel-grass in Willapa Bay is shared by many. The small parts of the big picture begin with this permit, it's use in the past and the revalation of 1,500 acres of dead eel-grass in the last 10 years. HOW MUCH DEAD HABITAT IS ENOUGH?

4. Willapa's migrating juvenile salmon of all species need the habitat cover and nutrition both species provide. Until further studies are done on eelgrass mass, and the effects of immazamox in manilla clams , refuse to issue this permit.

It wouldn't take much to hire my own biologist , spray a patch of my own clams and test the mud at a variety of levels along with the clams for food safety. It is just this type of food quality control RFK Jr appears interested in. The build up of chemicals in our soil, water and food are concerns for generations to come. Truthfully, I'm a bit shocked this permit is being considered for renewal at all, let alone for a 5 year period AND with no monitoring required.

Respectfully 

Marlisa Williams Dugan

Fishthenemah@gmail.com 

253-307-4043 

↓

I would like there to be a provision for aerial application of imazamox utilizing drones. All regulations specific to drones and conditional (weather) would be applicable. In addition posting the four corners of the treatment site makes little sense ...↓as all applications are coordinated with the shellfish grower and any public access when applicable will also be posted at shore. There isn't anyone anywhere to see the posted four corners and this provides no public purpose.↓

Hello,
Thank you for providing the opportunity to publicly comment on the Zostera japonica Management General Permit for the Willapa Bay area.

My name is Apo Skye Cyr and I am a Natural Resources student in the bachelor's program at Green River Co...↓llege. I have a degree in Water Quality, but the focus was largely on freshwater streams and rivers, so I am interested in the process for more oceanic endeavors.

From what I recall, public comments from the pre-approved 2019 draft of the plan listed difficulties in testing the effects of Imazamox on marine bacteria. I was wondering if there have been any updates on this front in the past few years. Additionally, in the 2019-2024 period where there any instances of this permit being issued for experimental use? I think that overall, the use of Imazamox aquatic herbicides is not a bad thing (due to its listing as a largely non-impactful herbicide for humans, I believe under National Toxics Rule 40 CFR 131.36) but would like to know if there are any additional permits needed for other chemicals—for example, if the primary ingredient is Imazamox but there is a secondary herbicide that is detrimental to the environment would this product require two permits to be used? Or would the use be covered, as Imazamox is the primary ingredient? Under WAC 173-201A-410 water quality standards are allowed to be exceeded, but I was wondering if there is a hard limit on days that this can occur, or if the temporary limit is assessed on a case-by-case basis.
I apologize if these questions have already been answered somewhere. This is my first time publicly commenting on a project and there may be a learning curve involved in the process.

Thank you for the opportunity to engage in public discourse and to review your draft.

Sincerely,
Apo Skye Cyr
↓