JUUstice Washington

A Unitarian Universalist State Action Network

As lawsuits mount, government looks into removing Electron Dam

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Just last week, the Puyallup Tribe announced it was suing the owner of the dam, Electron Hydro, LLC, over a long list of environmental hazards and permit violations — including a fish kill that caused the death of thousands of fish and the pollution of the river with un-permitted artificial turf, both of which occurred during construction last summer.

That’s in addition to a lawsuit from the Department of Justice over the Clean Water Act. That lawsuit is specifically in response to the artificial turf incident, in which hundreds of cubic yards of turf that dam owner Electron Hydro had placed in the river disintegrated into crumb rubber and flowed downstream to the Puget Sound.

Read more here.

For tribes, climate change fight is about saving culture

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The Tulalips are expanding efforts to protect land and water that are integral to their identity.

When Terry Williams grew interested in climate change in the 1970s, he found information about human-caused global warming to be conflicting and confusing.

“It didn’t make sense until the early ’80s, when we saw a difference in the timing of the floods,” the Tulalip Tribes elder recalled. Later studies bore out what was happening in the tribes’ traditional lands. “The glaciers were melting two to three months early. We got floods in November and December instead of March and April. Rainfall had increased 6%.”

The 5,000 enrolled Tulalip citizens are primarily from the Snohomish, Snoqualmie and Skykomish tribes. In three river systems with the same names, ever-bigger and earlier floods wash away salmon eggs or bury them in river sediment. Higher water temperatures may kill fish that do manage to hatch. They never make it to Puget Sound.

If salmon can’t survive, what will happen to a Native culture based on a plentiful supply?

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Salmon spawn in the upper Columbia after an 80-year hiatus

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Bringing salmon back to the Upper Columbia has been a goal since the habitat was blocked by the Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee dams more than eight decades ago.

Tribal members held the Ceremony of Tears 80 years ago when the final run of salmon returned.

“Our ancestors carried a prayer that our salmon would one day return to the Upper Columbia. With all the prayers that were made historically and today, combined with all the efforts of our fisheries staff, our leaders and many others who are joined in this effort, we can bring our fish home,” Colville Business Council chairman Rodney Cawston said in a statement.

In a 2019 ceremony, Colville members released 30 salmon above Chief Joseph Dam and, a few days later, above Grand Coulee. It was the first time salmon had returned to their traditional waters.

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US Army Corps of Engineers rejects Pebble Mine permit application, likely killing project

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On Wednesday, 25 November, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied the permit application for the proposed Pebble Mine, an open-pit copper, gold, and molybdenum extraction project proposed for the headwaters of Bristol Bay, Alaska – North America’s most prolific salmon habitat.

The Corps “determined that the applicant’s plan for the discharge of fill material does not comply with Clean Water Act guidelines and concluded that the proposed project is contrary to the public interest,” Col. Damon Delarosa, commander of the Corps in Alaska, said a prepared statement, according to Alaska Public.

Yakama Nation case could set precedent for sacred tribal sites in WA

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Wanapine village, which sits on a ridge in Selah, a small town bordering Yakima to the north, has been mired in the court system for years. The Yakama Nation has been battling Yakima County and Granite Northwest, which seeks to expand its gravel mine from 26 acres to more than 160.

Yakima County officials have twice approved the expansion, which the Yakama Nation appealed twice and then sued the county and the mining company in 2017. The case could spend several more years in court because of the complexity and cutting edge nature of the cultural resource protection laws being debated, according to Ethan Jones, the Yakama Nation’s lead attorney in the case.

Read more here.