By Ross P. Barkhurst

State Sen. Dean Takko’s recent criticism in The Daily World’s opinion page regarding the Washington State Department of Ecology’s decision not to generate another permit to spray burrowing shrimp, calling it just “politics,” merits some enlightened comment. I will attempt to provide this.

There was plenty of science available out there when the first permit was issued three years ago. It was not well incorporated into the decision. Public input was limited to those in the affected area and shellfish customers in Seattle were not widely aware. When that public, a.k.a. customers, became aware, they were shocked, to put it mildly.

Chefs in Seattle refused to accept oysters from Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor, and let it be known. Within a few short days, those who received the permit to spray the neurotoxin imidacloprid in these waters abandoned it and sent it back.

Some of the larger producers swore this chemical off forever as a condition of being certified as “sustainable” seafood producers. Others asked that the permit be put in cold storage and given back some day when the PR settled. They even hired a PR firm, whose work was not successful in climbing the high mountain before them. Our national history is full of sad tales of broad spectrum pesticides being launched on one pest and causing horrendous collateral damage. By now the science is not nearly so sketchy and this flashback to the 1950s had little chance.

As Canada and Europe gave up on trying to control dry land use of imidacloprid while failing to keep it out of their watersheds, our intrepid Willapa Grays Harbor Growers Association let things “cool off,” then applied again. They had to apply again because DOE decided it does not do permit cold storage while the public forgets things.

Now the science has only been better communicated and developed, and there was really no chance of even writing another permit. For Sen. Takko to claim the science always supported use in the water is puzzling. Everyone else has failed trying to keep it out of the water while a few WGHOGA folks want to put it in. Again, some of the more prominent members do not want that.

Sympathetic politicians and agencies cannot overcome involved, informed public opinion, even apparently with a PR firm. DOE had no choice but to refuse to write another permit. To have first Rep. Brian Blake and now Sen. Takko claim politics defeated a good idea is like the pot calling the kettle black, except I am not sure the general public and WGHOGA customers qualify as politicians, nor might some want to be called one. They believe they have studied the science, communicated their concerns in thousands of comments and expect to have science based comments heeded. DOE should be thanked for doing this in a field where it was sorely needed.

We would hope our politicians, who have a lot to say about funding DOE and WDFW, would fund mapping of eelgrass, invertebrate populations, forage fish spawning, waterfowl and other bird life, to ensure all action to protect the net ecological function of our outer coast estuaries is undertaken, and soon. We have a moral and legal obligation to maintain our estuarine net ecological function, and restore it where needed. There are numerous signs that this is not now happening. Puget Sound and our orcas are proof that prevention is so much cheaper and effective than a long overdue cure. There is much proof out there that these things can be lost forever.

Ross P. Barkhurst, a resident of Nemah, owns two oyster beds and advocates for the environment.