Climate change of address

Local leaders prepare for refugees

Would you support local government meeting with special interests to draft policies that remove residents from private property while making room for refugees?  If you live on the North Olympic Peninsula, your elected and appointed leaders already had that meeting.

Two and a half years ago, a "Climate Change Resiliency Technical Workshop" was held with a mix of influential players from local governments and non-governmental organizations. 

Cheryl Baumann, the County employee who candidly worked to obstruct projects that her own department was tasked with supporting, was in attendance. 

So was Hansi Hals, the Jamestown Tribe's Natural Resources Director, who helped defeat a small family business to protect Johnson Creek (but remains silent about a proposed 600-home development straddling the same waterway.)

Janine Reed participated too. She is the County employee who, in an apparent act of government overreach, contacted private contractors and instructed them not to do business with a property owner. 

Clallam Conservation District Manager Kim Williams also participated. She supports the Jamestown Tribe's push to pipe irrigation ditches without proper easements or permission from property owners.

A list of participants from Clallam and Jefferson Counties attended the 2021 workshop.

The workshop resulted in a 15-page document that does very little to help our economically depressed region but takes great strides in dictating how and where area residents live.

The word "water" is mentioned 136 times.  Without mentioning the 2012 and 2014 removal of the Elwha River dams that infringed on the Elwha Tribe's treaty rights, the workshop acknowledged that "the City of Port Angeles became very concerned about the Elwha as a water source for the city, prompted by so very low water years to the point that it became physically difficult to withdraw water from the river."

Later in the report, a policy was proposed that would certainly increase already staggering home costs: "Should we be looking at laying pipes to accommodate gray water, reclaimed water, and even desalinization systems as part of planning for current construction projects in anticipation of future water demands?"

The report focuses on "grandfathered wells without meters" in the Sequim area that may "be using a lot of water."  The government's metering of private wells began in 2013 when the Dungeness Water Rule took effect.  The Water Rule policy, promoted by the Jamestown Tribe, determined that pulling water from a well miles from the Dungeness River actually decreased river flows, thus infringing upon the Tribe's established treaty rights.  

Despite two representatives from the Jamestown Tribe being in attendance, the report did not mention the water consumption of the Tribe's 18-hole golf course within the Dungeness Water Rule Area.

While the workshop emphasized there is not enough water to support current residents, attendees made preparations to accommodate "climate refugees".

Readers may recognize one of the workshop's goals from County employee Cheryl Baumann's presentation to the Commissioners. Baumann testified that money intended to finish Towne Road would be better spent relocating residents away from hazardous areas. The workshop similarly concluded that "we might need to relocate homeowners out of harm's way" and attendees proposed changing county and city Comprehensive Plans to achieve that goal. The paragraph below offers a number of ideas that, if enacted, would restrict rural land ownership.  

"We might need to relocate homeowners out of harm’s way and to better enable restoration actions, instead of installing very expensive infrastructure to serve a relatively small number of these residences within urban areas."

Both Clallam County and the City of Sequim are undergoing drastic Comprehensive Plan reviews this year.

The workshop justified the relocation of property owners away from beaches by showing how devastating sea level rise could be. A "buy back" program would offset costs, but attendees admitted "we need to make sure we're using taxpayer dollars wisely and not paying full price for parcels."  This would all be done to help the ecosystem become more resilient, and the North Olympic Development Council, headed by Clallam County Commissioner Mark Ozias, could assist in seizing property.

According to software promoted at the workshop, a four-foot rise in Dungeness Bay would completely inundate the Three Crabs community at the mouth of the Dungeness River.  The government would be justified in relocating hundreds of residents and confiscating their beachfront property.

Four-foot sea level rise in Dungeness.

However, that same four-foot rise in sea level wouldn't threaten the Tribe's campus at the head of Sequim Bay.  There would be no reason to relocate the casino, hotel, gas station, or cannabis dispensary.

Four-foot sea leave rise at the Jamestown Tribe’s campus in Blyn.

Likewise, when the software generated a four-foot sea level rise a mile east of Three Crabs, Seashore Road is devastated, and Graysmarsh becomes uninhabitable. Yet, Jamestown Beach — the ancestral home of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe, where the newly constructed pavilion, fry bread shack, and totem carving shed have been built — remains untouched by rising seas. When the resident relocation program begins, the Jamestown Tribe won't need to move.  

A four-foot sea level rise would spare the Jamestown Tribe’s ancestral grounds a mile east of Dungeness.

The government is legally obligated to open the books and show how tax dollars are spent.  However, once these special interest non-governmental agencies are given money — through taxpayer-funded County, State, and Federal grants — all traces of accountability and transparency vaporize. Even though these agendas are carried out with taxpayer funds, there is no public visibility.  

This country already has a dark history of involuntarily relocating inhabitants, are we ready to do it again?

The report concluded with “Next Steps” in which attendees aimed to help inform the 24th Legislative District about climate resiliency efforts. The 24th Legislative District has an open seat this year and The People’s Forum will be hosting a candidate Town Hall this Thursday, June 20th, in Sequim.