Urge the U.S. Army Corps To Honor Tribal Sovereignty!

Environmental Review of the Goldendale Pumped Storage Development.

Dear U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) recently released its final environmental review for the Goldendale Energy Pump Storage Hydroelectric Development. FERC’s concluding recommendation? License the development, despite FERC’s failure to consult with the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation (Yakama Nation). The Development, proposed in the Columbia Hills at a site known as Juniper Point, or Pushpum to the Yakama People, is a place of extraordinary significance to multiple Tribal Nations and includes many ancestral village sites, traditional food gathering areas, historic and archaeological sites, and legendary traditional cultural properties. The Washington State Dept. of Ecology’s environmental review concluded that construction and operation of the development would result in unavoidable adverse impacts to tribal and cultural resources. In stark contrast, FERC’s environmental review ignores the development’s destruction of irreplaceable tribal cultural resources, large consumption of Columbia River water, and impacts to fish, wildlife, streams, and wetlands. This follows a disturbing pattern that the National Congress of American Indians considers a national emergency in Indian country because FERC is failing its consultation obligations with Tribe’s nationwide. I urge the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to conduct its own environmental review of this development with robust and collaborative consultation with the Yakama Nation and Confederated Tribes and Bands of Umatilla Indian Reservation.