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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday July 2, 2003
| Contact: |
John
Tennis, Public Information Officer, 360-709-3073 (Before noon 7/3) |
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Mark
Swartout, Natural Resources Specialist, 360-709-3079 (After 7/6) |
Shellfish
Stakeholders Deliver Recommendations
OLYMPIA – Members of the Nisqually Reach and Henderson Inlet Shellfish District
Stakeholders groups will give their recommendations to the Thurston County
Commissioners next week. The two
eleven-member groups have been working since April of 2002 to develop water
quality recovery plans for the Henderson Inlet and Nisqually Reach areas.
The planning came after the state moved in 2001 to restrict some
commercial shellfish harvests due to pollution impacts.
Thurston County Natural Resource Specialist Mark Swartout says the
recommendations are the culmination of intense fact finding and deliberations
by both groups. “The stakeholders have been working very hard on complex,
interrelated issues to try to come up with plans for the recovery of water
quality in the two areas. Their
recommendations are intended as a road map that the community can use to
lessen the pollution impacts in the Henderson Inlet and Nisqually Reach
areas.”
The Stakeholders Groups were asked by the board of commissioners to come
up with long-term strategies to reduce fecal coliform contamination to allow
for increased water quality and recovery of the shellfish resource.
The recommendations will be delivered to the county commissioners in a public
meeting at 7:00 PM the evening of Thursday, July 10th in room 280
of the Thurston County Courthouse, 2000 Lakeridge Drive SW, Olympia,
Washington.
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