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(GOLDENDALE, WA) - - More than a dozen environmental groups are stepping up their fight against a proposed $2.4 billion pumped storage project alongside the Columbia River, citing concerns about its impact on tribal nation cultural resources.
(The 10 Largest Pumped Storage Facilities in the World)
The groups, led by Columbia Riverkeeper, sent a letter dated Monday to Oregon’s and Washington’s governors and U.S. senators imploring them to oppose what they called an “alleged green energy development.”
The Goldendale Energy Storage Project, 110 miles upriver from Portland in Klickitat County, Washington, is seeking a license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and permits from Washington state.
The developer characterizes the project as an environmentally benign way to address generating capacity needs — experts say the region could face a shortfall in the coming years — by storing intermittent solar and wind energy when those resources are plentiful.
Pumped storage works by moving water uphill when energy is available, then releasing the water downhill through generating turbines when the energy is needed.
The closed-loop Goldendale project would require construction of two reservoirs, each covering about 60 acres, one along the Columbia and another more than 2,000 vertical feet up on a bluff overlooking the river.
In a FERC filing, the Yakama Nation called the project site “an area of exceptional cultural importance” and said it would add to dams and wind farms that “devastate and destroy … traditional fishing sites, villages, burial site, ceremonial gathering places, root and medicine harvests, and cultural landmarks up and down the Columbia River.”
Environmental groups have also questioned the project’s effect on golden eagles and bald eagles.
The project was recently acquired by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, but one of the original owners, Rye Development, continues to oversee the permitting process. It emailed this statement in response to the environmental groups' letter:
“The Goldendale Energy Storage Project will help both
Washington and the entire Pacific Northwest meet its clean energy goals while
revitalizing a brownfield site, injecting millions of dollars in new tax
revenue and creating family wage jobs in rural Washington and Oregon. We know
it will be impossible for our region to meet our clean energy and climate
action goals if we can’t store renewable energy to use when we need it. And
this project will allow us to do so while having minimal impacts on the
environment and requiring a fraction of the new infrastructure needed to import
more out of state solar, wind, or battery power to the region. Rye Development
and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners are honored to be in the position to
help shepherd this project forward. We look forward to continuing to have
ongoing and productive discussions with stakeholders at all levels as we all
work to develop a project needed for the region, and nation, to reach climate
goals in a timely manner.”
Last year, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed into law a bill that designated the Goldendale project “a project of statewide significance,” intended to expedite state permitting. Asked for comment on the letter from the environmental groups, a spokesperson for the governor emailed: “Our office is focused on following processes right now. The Governor supports a full and complete review of the impacts as required by law.”
Gov. Kate Brown’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The groups signing onto the letter, in addition to Columbia Riverkeeper, include: the Washington and Oregon Chapters of the Sierra Club, Friends of the White Salmon, Audubon Society of Portland, Washington and Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, Center for Environmental Law & Policy, Food and Water Watch, Northwest Environmental Defense Center, Friends of the Toppenish Creek, Northwest Environmental Advocates, Rogue Climate, 350PDX, and Waterkeeper Alliance.
While the project is seeking final license approval from
regulators, building it will require commitments from utilities or other energy
users to make use of its services. A similar but smaller project in Southern Oregon
has been fully approved but has yet to find an energy off-taker.
