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PENINSULA DAILY NEWS November 8, 2015 | $1.50
Port Townsend-Jefferson County’s Daily Newspaper
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Rower focus of wide search
Who owns new land?
Olympic athlete seen on ferry BY PAUL GOTTLIEB
AND
JAMES CASEY
PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
TERRY WARD/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Seagulls fly over a pool in the Elwha River estuary. Sediment washing down the river has built more than 80 acres of beaches.
Growing beaches at mouth of Elwha River draw visitors Discussions begin about ownership and responsibility BY ARWYN RICE PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES — Who owns the more than 80 acres of new sandy beaches at the Elwha River mouth? Research and discussion have just begun about who owns, and who is responsible for maintaining, the land at the mouth of the Elwha River that was created by sediment washing down the
river after two dams ALSO . . . were removed. ■ River The lowest portions mouth of the beach belong to wildlife/C1 the state Department of Natural Resources, which controls all land lower than about 6 feet of elevation that is adjacent to waterways, said Dave Parks, DNR senior resource scientist and hydrogeologist. The Lower Elwha Klallam tribe owns land on the east side of the river and some on the west side. How much of the new land belongs to the tribe is in question. Private property abuts the accredited land on the west side, and access is
through private property. Surveys remain to be done and legal questions remain regarding the beach properties, Parks said. “It’s a complicated issue with multiple ownerships,” he said. No one has yet officially measured the new beaches, which keep changing, shifting with tidal changes, floods and additional sediment flowing downriver. Estimates of the amount of new land range between 80 and 100 acres. Joe Smillie, spokesman for DNR, said Thursday that the state agency is working to determine exactly where the property lines exist on the new beaches. TURN
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ELWHA/A7
PORT ANGELES — A statewide search continued Saturday for a former Canadian Olympic rowing athlete who was last seen boarding the MV Coho ferry in Victoria as it left for Port Angeles on Tuesday. Victoria police spokesman Bowen Osoko said Saturday that Harold Backer, 52, an avid Victoria bicyclist, disappeared after telling his family he was going out for a bike ride. In Port Angeles, Deputy Police Chief Brian Smith said authorities were certain Backer boarded the Backer Coho, registering with Canadian and U.S. border officials. They are “85 percent certain” that a bicyclist videotaped as he left the ferry was Backer, Smith said. “We can’t absolutely confirm that he got off the boat.”
Popular destinations State Patrol spokesman Trooper Mark Hodgson said Friday that the agency was focusing search efforts on popular biking destinations. “If we see something that looks like where cyclists might be, we are certainly going to check up on that,” Hodgson said. TURN
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PA woman held in jail as prosecutors talk Federal indictments unsealed BY JAMES CASEY PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
HAMILTON, Mont. — A 47-year-old Port Angeles woman remained in a Montana jail Friday while authorities there, those in Jefferson County and federal prosecutors decide who will prosecute her first. Marlen Ravelo was among 12 defendants whose indictments were unsealed Thursday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Seattle, after a two-year investigation of
drug trafficking in the Puget Sound region. Ravelo initially had been arrested on Montana charges Oct. 31 — even while she awaited a Nov. 30 trial on drug charges in Port Townsend — but had posted bond and been released from the Ravalli County Adult Detention Center in Hamilton. However, because deputies said she set up a drug delivery when she arranged for bail, they rearrested her Tuesday. They reset bond at $250,000 after a
urine test revealed she had used narcotics. They added a charge of tampering with evidence to her 10 state drug-related counts after jailers said they caught her trying to replace the sample with “clean” urine.
Who goes first? Most recently, U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes in Seattle unsealed indictments naming Ravelo among two-dozen defendants. A spokeswomen for Hayes’ office in Seattle said Friday it remained undecided whether the
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Jefferson County case, the Montana charges or the federal indictments against Ravelo would take precedence. The federal office did not enumerate the federal complaints against her. Twelve of the 24 indicted defendants had been arrested by Friday, federal authorities said. Besides Ravelo, they included residents of Bothell, Everett, Marysville and Stanwood, as well as Fresno, Calif. Raids on Thursday seized 14 pounds of heroin, 43 pounds of methamphetamine, cash and eight handguns, bringing the
investigation’s heroin total to 50 pounds, meth to 100 pounds and cash to $1.12 million.
Port Angeles raid As part of the federal investigation, officers of the Olympic Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Team (OPNET) and other agencies searched a house at 453 McCarver St., Port Angeles, on Thursday, arrested Johnnie J. Blanco, 27, of Port Angeles and booked him into the Clallam County jail on possession of a controlled substance. TURN
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RAVELO/A5
INSIDE TODAY’S PENINSULA DAILY NEWS 99th year, 257th issue — 5 sections, 64 pages
BUSINESS/POLITICS A11 B5 CLASSIFIED COMMENTARY A14, A15 C6 COUPLES C7 DEAR ABBY C9 DEATHS A15 LETTERS A4 NATION A2 PENINSULA POLL TV WEEK
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