A rescue boat at a local marina can’t deploy at low tide; fire officials are sounding the alarm
A woman who went for a swim in Lummi Bay near Sandy Point in mid-May found herself a little too far from shore, succumbing to the chill of the spring water and in need of some assistance.
A nearby resident spotted the woman and called 911, setting into motion a rescue effort by members of Whatcom County Fire District 17 based at Sandy Point.
The timing was terrible, however. Since it was low tide, responders were unable to get a rescue boat out of Sandy Point Marina.
The rescue boat can only leave the marina during high tide because the marina entrance needs to be dredged, Whatcom County Fire Chief Jim Petrie told The Bellingham Herald.
“Honestly, 70% of the time we are dispatched to an emergency call we are not able to get out to help,” Petrie said, adding that there are no other places to safely dock the rescue boat other than the marina.
On the day in question — May 14 — a rescue was made. Not by the fire department, however.
Instead, Petrie made a call to the nearby Phillips 66 oil refinery, and a boat was sent out from there to pull the woman from the water. Authorities said she was suffering from symptoms of hypothermia and was taken to St. Joseph Medical center to be treated.
“Without the Phillips 66 refinery there, the woman would have drowned,” Petrie said. “She was too far out and suffering from hypothermia. Bellingham Coast Guard was too far away, and we couldn’t get our boat out.”
Lummi Nation opposition
In 2017 a group of boat owners applied for a county permit to dredge the marina so their boats could more freely move in and out.
The marina is part of Lummi Nation, however, and the Tribe intervened to block the dredging, arguing that it is a treaty-protected site located within the Lummi Reservation.
The Lummi Nation did not respond to a request from The Herald to comment on the May 14 rescue but instead issued a press release May 23 reiterating the Tribe’s insistence that dredging not occur.
“The Lummi Nation has always been opposed to dredging in our coastal tidelands,” Chairman Tony Hillaire said in the statement. “The proposal to perform maintenance dredging at Sandy Point is a violation of our treaty rights and holds potential to harm our shellfish harvest.”
The release states that the artificial marina should never have been built in the first place, and that it is not in compliance with the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899.
Fire rescue boat fairly new
In August 2016, District 17 received a call of a boat explosion about a half-mile off Sandy Point. The district didn’t have a rescue boat at the time, and all fire crews could do was watch from the shore as private citizens rescued the victims from the water, Petrie said.
After that incident, Petrie asked the Phillips 66 refinery if they could have access to one of the two spill-response boats in the marina. Instead, Phillips 66 donated one of the boats and donated the funds to have it retrofitted as a rescue/fire boat.
Phillips 66 has one spill response boat in the Sandy Point Marina, and another that operates 24/7 — the boat that rescued the woman May 14.
Petrie said that so far no one has drowned because rescue crews can’t get the boat out, but the May 14 incident came very close, and it is likely just a matter of time.
“The key thing is being able to get out the entrance of the canal when we do have those low tide conditions. Until that canal is dredged, this is probably going to be the last summer that we have the boat in service,” Petrie said.
Pat Malara, president of the Sandy Point Improvement Company, told The Herald that he has been trying to get in touch with The Lummi Nation to find a compromise to perform a maintenance dredge, but the Tribe has not responded.
The Tribe’s May 23 release states they did engage in “good faith discussions with the dredge proponents and did not arrive at a decision against maintenance dredging lightly.”
Full text of Lummi Nation news release
Lummi Nation Opposes Dredging at Sandy Point
Tribe Says Maintenance Dredging Violates Treaty Rights
Bellingham, WA – The Lummi Indian Business Council has denied the request to dredge the Sandy Point Harbor entrance channel, a treaty-protected site located within the Lummi Reservation. The following statement from Tony Hillaire, chairman of the Lummi Nation, can be quoted in-full or in-part.
“The Lummi Nation engaged in good faith discussions with the dredge proponents and did not arrive at a decision against maintenance dredging lightly.
The Lummi Nation has always been opposed to dredging in our coastal tidelands. The proposal to perform maintenance dredging at Sandy Point is a violation of our treaty rights and holds potential to harm our shellfish harvest.
Dredging of the privately-owned, artificially excavated marina located on the Lummi Reservation severely impacts the quality and quantity of Lummi’s tidelands. Disruption of the entrance channel removes essential habitat, and the fine sands and gravels that the Lummi Nation’s shellfish beds and fish habitat rely upon.
The marina development should never have happened in the first place. The tidelands at this location have been held in trust by the United States for Lummi. If the channel had been properly reviewed in the 1950s, in compliance with the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, it never would have been authorized.
Our position for decades has remained the same. Our treaty rights to harvest fish and shellfish are severely impacted by maintenance dredging of the Sandy Point Marina and it is a violation of our treaty-protected rights to harvest fish and shellfish.”
This story was originally published June 2, 2024 at 4:00 PM.
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