The Snoqualmie Indian Tribe is engaging in King County’s environmental review of Jupiter Power’s proposed Cascadia Ridge Energy Storage Facility to advocate for the protection of the Tribe’s cultural resources and waters of its ancestral territory for generations to come.
The proposed battery energy storage facility would be developed on land in unincorporated King County, directly adjacent to Snoqualmie Ridge within 6 miles of the Tribe’s Reservation. Once King County issues a State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) threshold determination, the Tribe plans to pursue the relevant cultural and environmental review processes through the County’s permitting process and government-to-government consultation.
The Snoqualmie People have lived in and cared for the Snoqualmie Valley and their ancestral lands since time immemorial. The Tribe holds inherent sovereign authority, confirmed in its Constitution, to protect the cultural and natural resources of those lands, and it carries out that responsibility through government-to-government engagement with federal, state, county, and local governments. Its interest in the Cascadia Ridge proposal flows from that duty and from a connection to these lands that long predates the project.
“Our connection to this land was entrusted to us by our ancestors, and protecting it is among our highest responsibilities as a People,” said Chairman Robert M. de los Angeles. “When a project of this scale is proposed on tribal ancestral lands, the Tribe has both the standing and the obligation to see that our cultural resources and our waters are fully accounted for.”
Jupiter Power (based in the United States) has proposed an approximately 130-megawatt battery energy storage facility on land in unincorporated King County, where land use, permitting, and SEPA review authority rests with the County. The Tribe intends on focusing on cultural and natural resources and the health of the Snoqualmie Valley watershed, including water quality, watershed connectivity, and downstream effects on the river and connected ecosystems and wildlife habitats in its review and plans to provide its comments publicly when submitted to the County.
The Tribe’s engagement reflects responsible governance and stewardship of our ancestral lands and waterways. It is not a statement on energy policy or on the merits of battery storage. The Tribe’s aim is simply a review that is thorough, lawful, and transparent, and a record that gives full weight to its concerns before any decision is made.
“The Tribe wants to ensure the County conducts a comprehensive and complete review of how the proposed project may impact our ancestral lands and that our standing as a government is respected,” said de los Angeles. “We weigh every project developed in our homelands by what it will mean for the generations still to come.”
[Information provided by the Snoqualmie Tribe]
