The Quinault Indian Nation has asked Gov. Jay Inslee to preserve its treaty-protected fishing, hunting and gathering rights by not funding the recently-proposed flood relief projects in the Chehalis Basin.
Providing the basin with the requested $28 million would "severely and adversely affect our ability to exercise our treaty-protected rights," Quinault President Fawn Sharp wrote in a letter to the governor. Basin flood relief should not rely on projects that sacrifice natural resource to benefit "a few property owners in the Chehalis Basin," she added.
The Governor's Work Group — comprised of Vickie Raines, the Flood Authority chairwoman; Karen Valenzuela, the vice chair of the Flood Authority; J. Vander Stoep, an alternate to the Flood Authority; David Burnett, the chair of the Chehalis Tribe; Jay Gordon, the head of the Washington Dairy Farmers Association; and Keith Phillips, an adviser to the governor — in November requested $28 million in state funding for flood mitigation projects.
Former Gov. Chris Gregoire included that funding in her 2013-2015 Outgoing Capital Budget. But the Quinault Nation wholly opposes funding for the study and design of a dam on the Upper Chehalis River as well as the slate of small scale projects, intended to provide immediate flooding relief in the Basin, proposed by the Governor's Work Group.
"We have repeatedly expressed our opposition to such projects in the past and continue to do so now," Sharp, the tribe's former managing attorney, said in her letter dated Feb. 26. "As a co-manager of the Chehalis Basin's resources with federally-protected treaty rights, the Quinault Indian Nation must be substantively involved in decision-making regarding flood relief measures."
The Quinaults instead suggest, Sharp said, that state resources be directed toward removing and prohibiting construction of houses and businesses in the floodplain and restoring the local environment.
"Millions are being spent to remove dams from the Elwha River and elsewhere to try to undo damage to salmon and steelhead resources," she wrote.
Past requests to have a substantive role in the Flood Authority — or to have a meaningful dialogue with the governor — have not been honored, according to Sharp.
“We urge you not to move this budget request forward," she said, "in your own proposed budget or support bills including this provision."
The Quinault Indian Nation would welcome a meeting with the governor to discuss "appropriate state expenditures to address flooding," she concluded.
The Governor's Work Group will meet with Inslee in April, according to Raines.
