PORT ANGELES — Shellfish harvesting is safe in 40 more acres of Dungeness Bay than six years ago, state health officials say.
The finding — the result of tests taken between October 2012 and late April by the state Department of Health — was presented Tuesday to the Clallam County Board of Health.
At Dungeness Bay, improvement stemmed from “working for a very long time to improve its water quality” by upgrading septic systems and controlling stormwater and irrigation outfalls, said Andy Brastad, director of the Environmental Health division of the county Health and Human Services Department.
Along with landowner projects financed with help from the Clallam Conservation District, “we’re going to take at least partial responsibility,” he said, noting that some shellfish-harvesting areas in Washington state have been downgraded.
The state lists as “approved” or “conditionally approved” 12 sampling stations in Dungeness Bay from each of which 30 samples were taken to test for fecal coliform bacteria.
Fecal coliform is excreted by warm-blooded animals, including humans. It is the most common contaminant of natural water.
The report upgrades from 2009 about 688 acres from conditionally approved to approved, and another 40 acres from prohibited to conditionally approved.
The conditionally approved areas will be closed during the “wet season” from November through January, Brastad said.
The areas that remain prohibited lie generally along the shoreline from Cline Spit east to Casselary Creek.
Brastad told health board members the prohibition was due to freshwater pollution from the Dungeness River and Meadowbrook Creek and Meadowbrook Slough.
County Commissioner Jim McEntire, who also serves on the Board of Health, jokingly called the news “the fecal coliform equivalent of community policing.”
Standards for the three classifications were set by the National Shellfish Sanitation Program, a federal/state cooperative recognized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.