Center for Food Safety Files Motion to Halt Nine Industrial Shellfish Operations in Washington’s Coastal Waters
17 June 2025, Seattle: Today, Center for Food Safety (CFS) and its ally, Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat, filed a motion for summary judgment in federal court to set aside Letters of Permission (LOPs) authorizing nine large-scale industrial shellfish operations in Washington’s most sensitive coastal waters.
Despite a 2019 Order from this Court requiring the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to fully analyze the environmental effects of industrial shellfish operations, the Corps has instead relied on streamlined permit review procedures known as LOPs to authorize these same operations without any environmental review or public notice. Plaintiffs have been seeking a fulsome review of the impacts of industrial shellfish aquaculture in Washington for over a decade, and yet the Corps’ latest permitting scheme still fails to fulfill its own mission of protecting our shared aquatic resources.
The nine challenged facilities in this case are massive operations spanning hundreds of acres of Washington’s most sensitive coastal habitat. These plastic-intensive operations have significant adverse effects on the surrounding environment, including threatened and endangered species that depend on these waters for habitat. The Corps should have provided public notice and completed an environmental assessment before issuing any individual permits to these operations. Instead, the Corps unlawfully issued LOPs to authorize these operations for an additional 15 years without any required procedures, causing significant harm to Washington’s aquatic ecosystems.
“The Corps cannot be allowed to misuse the LOP permitting process to evade environmental review and public notice-and-comment for large-scale industrial shellfish operations with significant adverse effects on the environment.” said?Kristina Sinclair, staff attorney at Center for Food Safety. “We’re calling on the court to do what the Corps failed to: protect our iconic marine ecosystems from being overwhelmed by plastic, pesticides, and profit-driven development.”
This legal action is part of CFS’s broader campaign to ensure that the expansion of industrial aquaculture doesn’t come at the cost of ecological integrity, tribal sovereignty, or the public’s right to clean and accessible shorelines.
Shellfish aquaculture in Washington state already occupies a massive footprint:
Between 38,700 and 50,000 acres?of tidelands—nearly a?quarter of all tidelands in the state—are used for commercial operations, including in?Puget Sound, Willapa Bay, Hood Canal, and Grays Harbor.
These facilities use 43,000 PVC tubes per acre?to grow geoducks, as well as netting, heavy machinery, crushed shell, and herbicides to prepare and harvest the seabed.
Washington’s industrial shellfish sector generates more than?$150 million in annual revenue, but at great cost to?salmon habitat, water quality, migratory birds, and endangered marine species.
“We’re not opposing shellfish farming—we’re opposing the Corps’ continued failure to properly evaluate the risks associated with large-scale industrial shellfish operations.” Sinclair continued. “Industrial aquaculture must be accountable to science, law, and the communities whose lives and cultures are tied to these waters.”
“The Army Corps’ permits for these nine polluting operations, which were granted with no environmental review or public notice, fail to acknowledge the impacts we see on the beach and in the water daily. This isn’t sustainable aquaculture—it’s factory farming. Today’s filing is a crucial step in protecting our vulnerable coastline and oceans.” said Laura Hendricks, Director of Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat.
CFS’s motion seeks to vacate these nine unlawful LOPs to prevent further environmental harm to Washington’s coastal waters and ecosystems.
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