The Clallam County Hearing Examiner has extended the comment period for the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe’s plans to re-establish an oyster farm within the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge.

Hearing Examiner Andrew Reeves decided April 5 to allow public comments through April 27. The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe will have until May 18 to respond to public comments and the county Department of Community Development will provide a staff report by May 31.

The hearing will continue June 7.

Reeves said that after the amount of information provided at the hearing last week, it would be necessary to extend the comment period to allow the public, county and tribe to provide additional comments and for the tribe to respond to concerns.

The tribe’s oyster farm would be on 50 acres of leased Department of Natural Resources tideland within the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge, said Ron Allen, tribal chairman. The farm would be in the bay about 4,000 feet north of Cline Spit.

The area has historically been used for oyster farming since before 1953 through a succession of private owners.

The tribe purchased the farm in 1990 and operated it for a few years before it was decertified due to contamination in the bay.

The state Department of Health warned about deteriorating water quality in 1995 and closed portions of the bay in 1997, 1999 and 2003, mostly because of fecal coliform.

The oyster operation was then closed in 2005, according to county records.

The farm itself would be on 34 acres of the leased land, leaving 25-foot buffers for conservation of eelgrass, according to county documents.

For the project to move forward, the tribe must secure a number of permits, including a shoreline conditional use permit and a substantial development permit from Clallam County.

Tribal officials have said they hope the permitting process goes smoothly and the tribe could begin planting oysters in spring of next year.