Senate Democrats Condemn Net Pen Operations After Release of Report

— from Dave Pringle for Senate Democrats —

Senate Democrats responded today after three state agencies overseeing the 2017 Cypress Island Atlantic Salmon Net Pen Failure released a report today highlighting insufficient cleaning, breakdowns in equipment and mooring, missed opportunity to adequately repair and recover the operations, and numerous incorrect statements from the corporation regarding the severity of the disaster.

“This sort of negligent, untruthful behavior is unacceptable for any corporation in Washington state,” said Sen. Kevin Ranker, D-Orcas Island. “Especially, a company that can have such dire consequences to our environment and our economy when things go wrong. I am disappointed with the lack of inspection and follow through by the department of natural resources.”

“There was opportunity over the summer to respond to issues at the facility, but that did not occur,” said Sen. Maralyn Chase, D-Edmonds. “Common sense should have come into play, and the facility should have taken steps to avoid this catastrophic failure that put the health of the Puget Sound at risk.”

“Clean nets are Netpens 101,” said Sen. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim. “If this company was failing at the most basic, most obvious level of maintenance, then it gives me pause about their commitment to running this kind of operation.”

“This report confirms much of what we learned last summer – our public waters were compromised by a company that failed to protect the Puget Sound ecosystem and by state agencies that did not provide proper oversight,” said Sen. Christine Rolfes, D-Bainbridge Island. “Our state’s natural resources are too fragile to withstand this level of carelessness.”