By DOUG SUTHERLAND

For The Beachcomber

As you are likely aware, I signed a lease for a dock and pierhead that enables Northwest Aggregates, a subsidiary of Glacier Northwest, to use the state aquatic bedlands adjacent to their sand and gravel operation. It replaces a lease last renewed in 1988. Our lease does not address the upland gravel issues, which are dealt with by the King County Land Use Regulatory Department. Today, I’d like to clear up some confusion as to facts about the aquatic lease and address some of the broader environmental implications.

The lease between Washington’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Northwest Aggregates is for a gravel-loading dock and pierhead within the Maury Island Aquatic Reserve. DNR was assisted in the decision to grant this lease by the state, federal and local agencies that earlier approved required permits.

The following permits were granted: The Washington State Department of Ecology 401 permit for water quality; the hydraulics permit from Washington’s Department of Fish and Wildlife to protect fish and wildlife and the King County Shoreline Management Act substantial development permit. In addition, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit was issued only after U.S. Fish and Wildlife and NOAA Fisheries established that endangered species, including the orca, would not be harmed.

This dock, and other aquatic uses in the reserve — such as the Quartermaster Harbor Marina and the King County Parks dock at Dockton — were addressed in the Maury Island Aquatic Reserve Management Plan.

The plan was developed over two years with broad public involvement, including the local, scientific, environmental, boating and business communities. The plan went through the state’s full public environmental review (SEPA) process and was adopted on Nov. 8, 2004.

Input by these communities helped guide us in developing an environmentally rigorous lease, and we appreciate that. A very high environmental bar was set in the aquatic reserve management plan. And under my direction, our lease with Northwest Aggregates has environmental benefits that meet and actually exceed those standards.

This lease is consistent with the Puget Sound cleanup goals. This project will remove a serious source of toxins — 200 creosote-laden pilings and toxic-treated derelict decking. The new dock is smaller and narrower than the old one and has steel instead of creosote pilings. This dock will lessen the shading impact and move the outer deck pierhead another 102 feet out into deeper water. It also will lessen the negative effects on any sea grasses, which will be monitored for ongoing health, as required by the lease — providing valuable scientific data to help inform decisions elsewhere in Puget Sound. The lease also includes a conservation easement — in perpetuity — for Northwest Aggregates’ tidelands and bluffs at the site.

Under the lease, Northwest Aggregates will deposit no stormwater from the gravel pit onto state-owned aquatic lands. We require that forage fish spawning areas not be impacted. The facility will limit hours when light is to be used during operations.

Our goal in balancing our responsibilities for state-owned aquatic lands is to support environmentally sound practices in commerce, navigation and water-dependent uses for the people of Washington.

I encourage you to review the facts about this lease. Please go to our Web site at www.dnr.wa.gov/Publications/maury_island_details_lease.pdf.

If you have specific questions about the lease, please write to us at ard@dnr.wa.gov.

— For the past eight years, Doug Sutherland has headed the state Department of Natural Resources.