Federal regulators want public input on Goldendale Energy Storage Project

A major new energy storage facility for the Northwest is one step closer to being built, with federal regulators releasing new documents outlining some of the impacts of the Goldendale Energy Storage Project in south-central Washington – including likely damage to sacred Indigenous sites.

The Goldendale facility would operate like a giant battery, using natural geography and gravity to cycle water through underground turbines, and then back up again to recharge. If built, it would be the largest pumped storage project in the Northwest.

“This project would be able to provide up to 12 hours of on demand renewable electricity, which is enough to power a half a million homes,” said Erik Steimle, vice president for Rye Development, the company behind the proposal.

“From a land use perspective, this makes use of existing private land, brownfield land, and integrates right into the existing grid, where we don’t need to build a lot of transmission infrastructure,” Steimle said, comparing it to much larger wind and solar farm footprints. His company, which is overseeing development of the project, hopes construction will begin by 2025.

But in a draft environmental impact statement last month, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said that the project can't move forward without destroying important cultural sites. Washington State officials reached the same finding in their report last year.

The Yakama Nation has been trying to stop the plan.

Among the areas that would be harmed are burial sites and traditional gathering locations, said Jerry Meninick, the Yakama Nation's deputy director for culture. Meninick's lineage traces back to the Rock Creek Band of the Yakama Nation.

“Before long it’s going to become our next Celilo,” Meninick said, referring to the historic market place where tribes fished and gathered to trade and participate in ceremonies. Celilo Falls, known as Wy-am, was inundated when The Dalles Dam was built in 1957. For Columbia River tribes, it’s still a fresh wound.

Yakama Nation officials said the project continues a legacy of green energy projects, built on the backs of Indigenous peoples.

In an earlier interview, Steimle said Rye Development is trying to mitigate the damage.

"We worked with the tribes to hire their own staff to do cultural resource survey work, ethnographic survey work in our project area," Steimle said during an earlier tour of the project site. "It's important to understand that tribal nations need to be heard. They're an important part of the process."

But tribal officials said no mitigation measure could make up for the loss of this area.

“Those damages are irreversible,” Meninick said. “This is a pittance that you’re offering us.”

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will accept written comments on its draft environmental impact statement through June 6, and they'll hold two in-person meetings this week:

• 10 a.m. to noon

Wednesday, May 3

Goldendale Grange, 228 E. Darland Drive, Goldendale, Wash.

Wednesday, May 3

Goldendale Grange, 228 E. Darland Drive, Goldendale, Wash.

Correction made May 4: An earlier version of this article misstated the location of the Goldendale Grange. It’s at 228 E. Darland Drive in Goldendale.