Chehalis Basin Board Discusses Inslee Letters Directing Creation of Non-Dam Alternative; Staff to Work on Plan

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Two weeks after Gov. Jay Inslee paused work on the environmental impact statement for a proposed Chehalis River flood-control dam and directed the Office of the Chehalis Basin to come up with an alternate approach, the Chehalis Basin Board discussed the directives at its regular Aug. 6 meeting. 

“The governor really believes success in the Chehalis Basin so far has been built on the backs of the collaboration of all the members of the board and all the communities in the basin, and that’s really needed going forward — that continued success is really reliant on continued collaboration,” said Jennifer Hennessey, Inslee’s senior policy advisor, at the meeting.

Hennessey said the board is on an “urgent timeline” partly because of ongoing budget discussions for the 2021 through 2023 budget period. 

On July 22, Inslee sent letters to the directors of the Departments of Ecology and Fish and Wildlife and to the Chehalis Basin Board directing Ecology to pause work on the Environmental Impact Statement on the dam through the end of the year, and directing the Office of the Chehalis Basin to “define a process and timeline for developing a basin-wide non-dam alternative to reducing flood damage.”

At the same time, he directed the board to continue its work on a long term strategy to reduce flooding and rehabilitate fish species in the basin and to continue to identify mitigation projects related to the negative effects of the proposed dam. 

“(Inslee) really does believe that the mitigation work needs to continue,” Hennessey said.

The group is expected to deliver a “consensus” recommendation on how to move forward with the governor’s directive by the end of September, which will lead to a “long-term strategy” to be considered by the legislature in the first quarter of 2021.

“Recent work evaluating a proposed large-scale flood retention project in the upper Chehalis River has brought additional and significant questions and concerns about impacts and alternatives,” Inslee wrote in his letter to the directors of Ecology and WDFW. “I have requested that the Chehalis Basin Board provide recommendations on the process for addressing some of these concerns, particularly the development of a basin-wide, non-dam alternative to flood damage reduction and evaluating the potential to avoid, minimize and mitigate the impacts of the flood retention and other flood risk reduction projects.”



The draft EIS concluded that the structure, which would only retain water during flood events, could harm fish species. Both the Quinault Indian Nation and Chehalis Tribe spoke out against the dam after the draft EIS was released and called for a basin-wide non-dam alternative. Other commenters expressed concern that the dam would only directly help areas from Pe Ell to Centralia, and only under similar conditions to the 2007 flood. 

Proponents of the dam point to studies showing it could prevent flooding of more than 1,000 structures flooded in 2007, and say harm to fish species is negligible. The EIS must be finished before the project can be approved and begin. 

The board had two break-out sessions to further discuss setting goals for the process of creating a non-dam alternatives, and to give more direction to staff for their work in the weeks before the board’s September meeting. In one session, the groups discussed their reactions to the governor’s letters.

“It seems like there was agreement that the governor’s letter was a constructive addition to the board’s process,” McNamara Doyle said. “There was some initial reactions about how to share the letter with the community, how to frame what it means and how to address what the governor’s overall message was as opposed to just bits and pieces of it.”

She noted that there was some confusion about the effect of Inslee’s letter in the community, saying that some people didn’t understand if the entire dam planning process, or the entire Chehalis Basin Strategy was stopped. 

The board also discussed how Inslee’s letters were a reaction to concerns from the Quinault Indian Nation and Chehalis Tribe, as well as comments from members of the community during the draft EIS comment period.

Chehalis Basin Board staff, led by McNamara Doyle, will be working on a plan for the board to consider at its September meeting.