MONTESANO — At a Flood Authority meeting here Thursday, members of the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority discussed the Quinault Nation’s announcement that they will not support state funding for flood mitigation projects.
In a letter to Gov. Jay Inslee, Fawn Sharp, the Quinault president, asked the state to preserve the tribe’s treaty-protected fishing, hunting and gathering rights by not funding the $28 million requested by Chehalis Basin leaders.
“The bottom line is that they’re opposing the Capital Budget package until there’s a discussion in the Governor’s Office with the Indian Nation present,” Flood Authority Facilitator Jim Kramer said Thursday.
According to Kramer, the authority only became aware of the letter’s existence last week. It was sent to the governor in late February.
The Quinaults last year sent a similar letter to then-Gov. Chris Gregoire. The governor responded with a letter offering government to government consultation, but that meeting never took place, Kramer said.
Former Grays Harbor County Commissioner Terry Willis, who attended Thursday’s meeting as a member of the public, encouraged the Flood Authority to reach out to the Quinault Nation. Communicating with the governor is one important conversation, she said. But communicating with the Flood Authority — particularly regarding individual projects and their impact on the Nation’s treaty rights — is a different, and equally important, conversation, according to Willis.
“I want to remind everyone that in the permitting process of these projects, the Quinault Nation’s opinion is going to weigh extremely heavily, along with any of the other tribes,” she said. “If we don’t do some outreach, it’s going to be difficult in the permitting process.”
Kramer said that, according to governor’s adviser Keith Phillips, no action has been taken in response to the letter
According to Sharp’s letter, the Quinault Nation wholly opposes funding for both the study and design of a dam on the Upper Chehalis River as well as the proposed slate of small scale projects, intended to provide immediate flooding relief in the Basin.
“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.
The Quinault Indian Nation would welcome a meeting with the governor to discuss “appropriate state expenditures to address flooding,” she concluded.
The Chehalis Work Group will meet with Gov. Inslee on April 4.
