WA Tribes getting tens of millions for flood recovery, relocation

(The Center Square) – Native American tribes across Washington state are set to receive tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to address flood risk and other issues related to climate change.

This week, at a remote meeting in Taholah, Wash., staff members from the Washington Department of Commerce and Gov. Jay Inslee announced $52 million for native tribes, including the Quinault Indian Nation on the Pacific coast of the Olympic Peninsula.

The Quinault plan to use a large portion of the money they will receive to relocate tribal community members in Taholah and Queets living with the increasing threat of flooding and the consequences of prior floods.

“The cost of doing that work is monumental,” said Guy Capoeman, president of the Quinault Indian Nation.

The Quinault ceded millions of acres to the U.S. government more than 150 years ago in exchange for a roughly 200,000-acre reservation on the coast.

“The world is changing. We here at the Quinault nation are at ground zero,” Capoeman said. “We have inherited a legacy to protect our land, to protect our resources, to protect our people.”

The money is coming from profits from the Climate Commitment Act, which took effect in 2023. The CCA charges the state’s carbon emitting businesses for greenhouse gas emission credits.

Profits from the CCA piled up quickly in the first year. and state lawmakers during this year's legislative session funneled huge amounts of CCA money into programs and projects that supporters of the program argue will be in jeopardy if the CCA is overturned by voters this fall.

Initiative 2117 on this November's ballot would repeal the climate law. Supporters of the initiative argue the carbon market is nothing more than a cash grab for the state and has resulted in higher prices for gas and utility bills, without doing much to help the environment.

Relocating the tribal villages of Taholah and Queets to higher ground is no small undertaking.

Part of Taholah is below sea level, separated from the Pacific Ocean by a seawall that had four feet added to its height in 2014 by the Army Corps of Engineers

Still, high tides and storm surges continually flood homes and government buildings.

Taholah is expected to see a sea level rise of between one to two-and-a-half feet by the year 2100, according to a 2018 Washington Coastal Resilience Project report, compiled by The College for the Environment, at the University of Washington.

The tribe published a relocation plan in 2017. The new location is on a site about a half-mile away and 130 feet above sea level, but federal money for the project – estimated to cost hundreds of millions of dollars – has been held up in recent years in a lengthy process of documenting and approving plans and designs.

Twenty-eight federally recognized tribes in Washington are receiving funding for projects that range from relocating communities to restoring salmon to adding solar panels.

The Legislature made the $52 million available in the 2023-25 budget, and the Department Commerce is working with tribes to figure out how they want the money used.

The Skokomish Tribe north of Olympia plans to use $2 million to weatherize homes.

The Makah Tribe on the northwestern tip of the Olympic Peninsula, wants to spend $620,000 to install solar panels and battery backup at a community warming center.

The Spokane Tribe in eastern Washington is looking to improve energy efficiency.

If I-2117 is passed by voters in November, then future funding sources for tribal projects becomes unclear. What is clear is that pledges to help tribes were made long before implementation of the CCA.