Fight looms over
replacing buffer system
Best management proposes more site-specific solutions

Skagit County’s fisheries and agricultural interests remain at loggerheads over a proposal that would relieve farmers of requirements for wide buffers intended to protect salmon habitat from agricultural runoff.

A new proposal from county government would do away with the buffer concept and instead institute a system called best management practices, or BMP, to prevent farm operations from polluting streams. Farmers still have some problems with the proposal, but find it generally preferable than imposing arbitrary streamside buffers of tree and grass plantings that could take considerable acreage out of production.

It is one of the most divisive natural resource issues Skagit County has faced in years and will be vigorously debated over the next several weeks. It is the proposed Critical Areas Ordinance for Ongoing Agriculture.

The Swinomish Tribe, with a large stake in the recovery of the salmon fishery in the Skagit and Samish River watersheds, has already weighed against the plan, calling it inadequate to protect fish.

Some see the proposed ordinance as a vast improvement over the old ordinance that some say assumed that agriculture was the main culprit in declining fish runs.

Bob Rose, executive director of Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland, said that many farmers prefer a system that is outcome based — one that encourages practices that actually produce positive results rather than an arbitrary buffer that may or may not make a difference in water quality.

Farmers are still concerned about the new ordinance being complaint driven, said Rose.

In other words, a farmer may be employing best practices and still be the target of a complaint and will have to spend considerable time defending himself in administrative proceedings.

But the new ordinance would not require buffers or other remedies of an agricultural operation unless it is determined that the farm is actually damaging fish runs.

The streamside buffer issue has been fought out at both the local government level and in the courts. County officials are now hoping that the new proposal will produce results that will suit the needs of both the fisheries and agriculture. A comment period on the proposed ordinance expired at the end of March.

The county hopes to present its new ordinance and fish protection strategy to the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board later this year. The board oversees that Shorelines Management Act.

The county’s farmers had objected to the previous ordinance, with its required minimum buffer widths, because, among other things, it assumed that agriculture was at fault without site-specific proof that a particular farming operation was hurting fish.

Another water quality issue looming ahead is a proposal by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to change the way tide gates are operated along the sloughs and drainage systems of the Skagit River Delta. The tide gates are part of a century-old system that drains the low-lying fields of the Skagit flats and prevents salt water from permeating fields at high tide.

The state agency wants to allow a mix of salt and fresh water in the tidal areas where salmonids are making their way down river to the sea. Delta farmers say that allowing salt water encroachment raises the fresh water table and prevents adequate drainage of their fields, thus making farming impossible. That issue is currently under consideration in the Legislature.

Meanwhile, county government has been working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on a study aimed at determining the best means of flood control along the Skagit River.

The $8 million study was begun in 1997 and in 2001 the study group produced their findings, with a number of recommendations.

An alternative favored by Skagit County commissioners calls for construction of a 2,000-foot bypass that would reroute flood water from Burlington to the Swinomish Channel. That project, estimated to cost $225 million, would involve widening the river channel and lengthening the three bridges over the river.

Another alternative is to move the dikes back by 1,000 feet from the Interstate 5 bridge to Skagit Bay. That option would also call for a lengthening of the three bridges across the river and cost about $280 million.

A third option would be to simply reconfigure the dikes near Memorial Highway just west of Interstate 5 so water can flow over their tops and spill into nearby farm fields.