Children run at Pushpum during a gathering earlier this year. The land has been sacred to the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation since the beginning of their people. Martin Gibson/file photo
Children run at Pushpum during a gathering earlier this year. The land has been sacred to the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation since the beginning of their people. Martin Gibson/file photo
GOLDENDALE — Before Rye Development can build a massive energy facility in a place sacred to the Yakama Nation, the state will have to write them a new water quality permit, a panel of judges ruled on Sept. 21.
In May 2023, Washington’s Department of Ecology issued a water quality certification to the Goldendale Energy Storage Project, a proposed pumped hydropower system that could provide 1,200 megawatts worth of on-demand energy by transferring water between two reservoirs atop and below Pushpum, a ridge adjacent to John Day Dam. Rye Development, backed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, says it’s the best place for it.
The Indigenous nation and local nonprofit Columbia Riverkeeper fought back, as Pushpum hosts irreplaceable habitat with medicinal plants, along with multiple archaeological sites and cultural areas.
After Washington’s Pollution Control Hearings Board sided with the developer and upheld the certification in January 2025, they took it another step to the Washington Court of Appeals. Last Monday’s decision orders the Department of Ecology and the hearings board to rewrite the permit, adding requirements to monitor and report leaks.
“Clean, renewable energy is essential to protecting our planet,” said Columbia Riverkeeper Senior Attorney Simone Anter in a press release. “Yet, state and federal governments are violating Treaty-reserved rights and ignoring Tribal sovereignty in order to license projects aimed at supporting energy-hungry data centers—not a just transition from fossil fuels.”
Riverkeeper and Yakama Nation also argued that the permit failed to determine whether the facility will leak into groundwater. They asked that leakage into groundwater be considered equivalent to directly polluting the Columbia. The judges denied both points.
A hyperscale data center is also planned for the area, but developers say there is “no commercial relationship” between the two ventures, as previously reported by Columbia Gorge News.
Commented