FREELAND, Whidbey Island -- The 360-foot-long paddlewheel steamboat was late for delivery. The Nichols Brothers customer was losing millions. With no legal way to launch the steamer into shallow Holmes Harbor, Matt Nichols directed his boatyard workers to do exactly what the government told him not to do: install an unpermitted boat ramp. A federal official scolded Nichols for building the ramp, but decided to allow its use to avoid "the substantial economic consequences of delaying this launch."
Then boatyard employees botched the June 2003 launch of the $45 million Empress of the North, sending it careening down the ramp at warp speed. Stuck in the mud, it had to be pulled free by tugboats whose propeller wash gouged out more than 65,000 square feet of eelgrass, an area considerably bigger than a football field -- critical shelter for tiny fish that sustain the Puget Sound food chain.
Over the years, the boatyard also has put up temporary buildings without the required permits, installed an unapproved septic system and been cited for, among other things, filling in wetlands and ripping up tidelands without a permit. The saga of Nichols Brothers shows how environmental agencies are hamstrung by businesses that repeatedly fail to follow the rules. Critics say it's a flagrant example of how the state's Hydraulic Code -- a set of rules meant to safeguard shorelines -- frequently doesn't protect the Sound.
"I think they have a motto that is: 'Catch me if you can,' " said Christine Goodwin, president of Friends of Holmes Harbor, a group that monitors the health of the harbor. "They do what they need to do to build that boat." Responds Bryan Nichols, Matt's son and president of the company: "I really hope I can prove her wrong. I guess we'll have to keep a clean record from here on."
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