This 2009 photo shows the entrance to the Two Rivers Detention Center in Hardin. / AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File
By Matthew Brown, The Associated Press
BILLINGS — A private corrections company from Louisiana is starting to train guards — but still doesn’t have any inmates — for a jail in Hardin that has sat vacant since it was built in 2007, company and town officials said Monday.
Steve Afeman with Emerald Correctional Management said a warden and other personnel have been hired and about 30 guards will be training through the week at the 464-bed Two Rivers Detention Facility.
The company intends to solicit inmates from Native American tribes, counties and the U.S. Marshals Service, Afeman said.
No agreements have been reached, and Chief Deputy Rod Ostermiller with the Marshals Service in Billings said he is not aware of any discussions between his agency and the Lafayette, Louisiana-based company.
The $27 million jail rose to notoriety in recent years after its backers failed to get any contracts for inmates, prompting desperate Hardin officials at one to point to offer to take in suspected terrorists held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A California man later duped officials with a grandiose plan to turn the jail into a military training camp.
The jail is owned by Hardin’s economic development agency, Two Rivers Authority. Emerald signed an operating contract with the authority on May 6 to run the jail, Two Rivers Chairman Jon Matovich said.
Two Rivers would receive 50 cents per day for every inmate under the terms of the deal, Matovich said.
“Everything is signed, the ball’s in (Emerald’s) court and they’re doing a great job,” Matovich said. “Anything that goes on at the facility from now on is Emerald’s stuff. As soon as they get their staff trained and get things rolling, I’m sure they will have some inmates.”
Afeman said representatives of Emerald planned to meet with leaders of tribes from Wyoming, Montana and the Dakotas beginning Wednesday to gauge their interest.
Afeman said in April that the company had reached a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs in which the agency endorsed the company’s plans. But on Monday, Afeman said there was no agreement with the federal agency and that Emerald was working directly with the tribes.
A former employee of the Wyoming Department of Corrections was hired as warden, Afeman said. Kenneth Keller spent three decades with the state agency and in 2008 was appointed warden of the Wyoming Honor Farm, a minimum security facility in Riverton for inmates preparing to re-enter society.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Tribal groups say a coal terminal in the Columbia River Basin would interfere with treaty rights, harm fish and put the health of tribal members at risk.
About 50 Yakama Nation members protested Tuesday at site of the project at the Port of Morrow in Boardman. They say the terminal proposed by Ambre Energy would destroy tribal fishing areas.
The Oregon land board is to decide by May 31 whether to approve the project. In a letter to the board, the company says tribes are currently not fishing at its dock. But treaty rights guarantee a site for tribal use whether it is in use or not.
The company also says its dock would not “unreasonably interfere” with fishing.
Environmental groups and business leaders have also rallied against the project.
Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2014/05/20/3652857/tribal-groups-oregon-coal-terminal.html?sp=/99/101/369/#storylink=cpy
Alan Schreiber walks through rows of organic cantaloupe on his farm in Franklin County, Washington. Schreiber has applied to grow marijuana in Washington but is concerned about federal water resources. BOB BRAWDY — TRI-CITY HERALD
Nobody seems quite sure of the answer: Will the federal government withhold services to the state, given the conflict between legally grown marijuana in Washington and a national drug policy that finds marijuana illegal?
If the answer is no, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will allow federal water to be used to irrigate marijuana crops, and the Bonneville Power Administration will allow federal power to be used in the cultivation of marijuana, primarily indoors.
If the answer is yes, then they won’t, in line with federal law.
With something of a wink and a nod, the U.S. Justice Department has provided soft guidance that conditionally allows financial institutions to do business with the marijuana industry. In the same way, utilities and regulatory officials could allow the provision of water and power if Congress could pass legislation the recognizes the will of Washington voters.
Or not.
ENERGY USE
The manufacture of one joint – a marijuana cigarette – will produce 1.5 kilograms of CO2 emissions, equal to the emissions of a 44-mpg hybrid car driving 22 miles. The energy used is equal to that used to produce 18 pints of beer.
U.S. electricity use for cannabis production is the equivalent of 1.7 million average homes, or the production of seven average U.S. power plants.
Of the total wholesale price of U.S.-grown marijuana, 49 percent goes to energy.
“Current indoor cannabis production and distribution practices result in prodigious energy use, costs and unchecked greenhouse-gas pollution,” said Evan Mills of Energy Associates, a California energy consulting firm. The figures are his, offered in a recent study.
“While the implications of I-502 for the criminal justice system, land use, taxation and many other issues have been widely debated, the potentially significant changes in electricity and water use that are likely to follow I-502’s implementation have received almost no scrutiny,” wrote Eric Christensen, of the local firm Gordon Thomas Honeywell, in a blog post last month.
He goes on to say that because marijuana remains illegal under federal law, “legalization creates a new set of legal risks for utility service providers.”
Some utilities say they’re ready for the risks and implications. Maybe.
UTILITIES
More questions: Is Bonneville concerned about the draw on the electrical grid? Has the use of electricity by growers and processors been discussed? Have plans been developed? Will marijuana cultivation and sale have any effect on Northwest power?
“While we are beginning to look at what potential impacts might be, we are not prepared to discuss those issues at this time,” replied BPA spokesman Doug Johnson to an inquiry last week.
Will the utility continue to supply “federal” power to Washington utilities that serve the cannabis industry?
“We are currently exploring these issues. Again, it is too early to discuss the potential policy implications or details of those discussions,” Johnson wrote.
In reality, electricity is already being supplied to the industry.
The greatest effect so far has fallen on Pacific County, home to Raymond, Long Beach and the aptly named Tokeland.
There, an entrepreneur has applied to use 20 megawatts of electricity, which works out to 40 percent of the county’s entire electrical load.
“We have contacted Bonneville (Power Administration), and we are working with Bonneville to build a new substation,” said Jason Dunsmoor, chief of engineering and operations for the Pacific County PUD.
“They will have their own substation,” he said, estimating that the infrastructure cost for the facility and the transmission line will cost some $3 million.
“We’re just providing the service,” he said. “The concern of everybody who invests is that the federal government could change its mind.”
Including the Pacific County facility, by last week the state Liquor Control Board had approved license applications for marijuana processors in 17 counties.
CONSUMPTION AND GENERATION
“We are going to get together and do some inquiries. We haven’t had any specific inquiries. We’ll be taking a look at it and discussing it,” said Karen Miller, communications manager at the Benton County Public Utility District.
“We’re looking at it and trying to make sure we understand all the ramifications and impacts,” she said.
Deb Bone-Harris, Franklin County community and government relations manager, said her utility has “not heard a concern about federal power being an issue. We’d have to deal with that if the time an opportunity were to come up.”
“There has been no formal discussion or agenda item related to this issue at the board level,” said Neil Neroutsos, spokesman for the Snohomish County PUD.
“Puget Sound Energy has a duty and obligation to serve customers under Washington state law,” said Ray Lane, spokesman for Puget Sound Energy, which serves several counties in the state.
“We are confident we have the capacity and resources to provide energy to any new customers who need our service,” he said.
“There have been conversations about the topic,” said Chris Gleason, spokeswoman for Tacoma Public Utilities.
“The interesting thing for us, and for other utilities, the ones who buy power from Bonneville, is whether Bonneville can supply to customers who are supplying to a service that is illegal in most parts of the country,” Gleason continued. “Bonneville is having the discussion about it.”
The answer resides in the other Washington.
Said U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Bellevue, “I understand there are multiple conflicts between state and federal law as it pertains to marijuana. The only way to ensure that state law is recognized at the federal level is by passing the Respect for State Marijuana Laws Act. I am a co-sponsor of this legislation and will continue to advocate for the federal government to recognize and respect our state law.”
Jared Leopold, communications director for Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, responded late last week, “Senator Cantwell is looking at the potential impacts of implementing Washington’s marijuana law.”
State Rep. Terry Nealey, R-Dayton, has followed the marijuana issue in the state Legislature.
“The unintended consequences continue to rise,” he said last week. “My overall impression, once 502 passed, was ‘Oh my gosh, we’re going to have quite a mess on our hands.’ ”
Nealey said he has asked a Bonneville government liaison specialist about the threat to deny power to the industry.
“She gave me a straight answer,” Nealey said. “We are aware of that problem and the legal department is working with that right now.”
THE GRID
“Part of the question we’re all asking – is this a big deal or not?” said Chuck Murray, senior energy policy specialist at the state Department of Commerce. “That’s because we have no idea how much energy is being used by illegal grows that are hidden from us.”
“My big concern is how much power is going to be required, but it’s very uncertain,” said Chris Robinson, power management manager at Tacoma Public Utilities.
“As a practical matter, we all know there are a lot of illegal grow operations. A lot of them are using Bonneville power already. Many of them are stealing power,” said Eric Christensen, an attorney at Gordon Thomas Honeywell and author of a recent blog post concerning cannabis cultivation and the law.
Some of that theft may go away once a legal network has been established.
Still, he noted the presence of “a number of potentially serious pitfalls for providers of services to marijuana growers, including utilities and irrigation districts.”
Evan Mills of Energy Associates estimated the industry consumes 20 terawatt hours per year nationally, including illegal grow operations.
For off-the-grid operations that consume power from private generators, Mills estimated that one marijuana plant requires 70 gallons of diesel fuel, or 140 gallons of gasoline used with smaller, less efficient generators.
Indoor cultivation in California, Mills wrote, accounts for 3 percent of all electricity use, or the electricity that could power 1 million average homes. Greenhouse gas emissions are equal to those from 1 million average cars.
Sources of energy use include an obvious list with lighting, heaters, humidifiers, de-humidifiers and such, but also include other, less obvious sources, including vehicles, CO2 generators, pumps, filters, fans, security stations and ozone generators.
“Current indoor cannabis production and distribution practices result in prodigious energy use, costs and unchecked greenhouse-gas pollution,” Mills wrote.
In its 2013 report “Environmental Risks and Opportunities in Cannabis Cultivation,” BOTEC, the firm hired by the state to assist in developing rules regarding the implementation of I-502, said “environmental considerations should not be a major component of marijuana policy, but are worth explicit attention and policy design.”
Meanwhile, federal agencies could flummox the whole thing by threatening banks or by denying water or electricity.
“It’s clear that the federal approach to the war on drugs is a complete failure,” said Christensen at Gordon Thomas Honeywell.
“The federal government,” he said, “should at least give us enough space to see if the Washington experiment will work.”
Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2014/05/20/3651758/power-and-water-will-feds-allow.html?sp=/99/100/&ihp=1#storylink=cpy
The Pascua Yaqui Tribe in Arizona is making history. Nearly 40 years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe (1978) that American Indian tribes did not have jurisdiction over non-Indians who committed crimes on reservations, the Pascua Yaqui are preparing to try as many as 10 non-Indians alleged to have committed domestic violence crimes on their reservation.
The stats for crimes against women in Indian country are appalling. A Department of Justice report states that American Indian/Alaska Native women are significantly more likely to be raped, physically assaulted and stalked than are white women. If, on an Indian reservation, that abuse was committed by a non-Indian, tribal law enforcement was not authorized to arrest the perpetrator and tribal courts did not have the jurisdiction to try him. Both arrest and prosecution were the responsibility of the federal government. But these are such challenging crimes to successfully bring to justice, federal resources are seldom deployed to deal with them.
The Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization of 2013 radically changed that. Under VAWA Indian tribes will have jurisdiction over non-Indians who commit domestic violence crimes on reservations. The law will go into effect for all tribes in March 2015, but the Justice Department in February designated three tribes – the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and the Tulalip Tribes of Washington – for a pilot program that allows them to exercise the authority immediately.
Troy Eid, chairman of the Indian Law and Order Commission mandated by TLOA, says, “The Pascua Yaqui Tribe has put a lot of energy into being ready for this day. My impression is they really tried to err on the side of caution so there would be no justification for overturning a tribal court verdict on federal review.”
Listening to Pascua Yaqui Tribe Chief Prosecutor Alfred Urbina describe what has gone into this moment makes “a lot of energy” seem like an understatement. Urbina detailed some of the issues the tribe has had to deal with and what has been learned in an effort to help other tribes put their justice systems in order to begin prosecuting these cases. “The ability to prosecute non-Indians for domestic violence brings up a lot of questions for the tribe,” he says.
Urbina explains that there have been 11 recent incidents on the reservation with American Indian victims and non-Indian suspects; some are still in investigation or waiting for warrants to be served, while some are in the process of being prosecuted. The first trial is scheduled to begin August 19, but some cases could be resolved through plea agreements before that.
One thing that has been surprising is the number of cases. “We thought we’d have 5 to 10 cases for the whole calendar year,” Urbina says. “But in just the first two months since the tribe has had the authority to arrest non-Indians, there have been more than 10 arrests.”
Demographics are critical to predicting how many cases tribes will need to prepare for. So is location – whether or not the reservation is near an urban center or a major highway. Among the questions tribes will have to address is: Who is actually living in tribal housing? The perception is that tribal members live in tribal housing, but there are probably other people as well, especially if there are a lot of single mothers, says Urbina.
Other questions shed light on matters such as – What is the composition of law enforcement on the reservation? Do people trust law enforcement? Urbina explains that if people have seen non-prosecution of DV cases for many years by both tribal and federal authorities, distrust may have built up and this will affect the success of the cases the tribe brings to trial. How does the tribe get a warrant served off-reservation and the suspect extradited back to the reservation for trial? What if a suspect does not speak English—will an interpreter be available for court proceedings and for conferring with an attorney?
Then there is the question of public defenders. “Some tribes are saying we just need to hire a lawyer, but that person would need to have a background in Indian law, Indian sovereignty issues, different ways of doing things in Indian country and tribal court history. If the lawyer doesn’t have that kind of information it will impact the case.”
One compromise that had to be made to get the law passed was that the attorneys and judges in cases where whites are being tried have to be state-licensed. This brings up the question of access. How will public defenders hired by the tribe have access to their clients on rural reservations?
And that in turn brings up the question of costs—of public defenders, judges, travel, housing of both legal personnel and of those being held for trial and medical care for prisoners. These are issues that if not handled correctly could lead to federal appeals on constitutional grounds, Urbina explains.
Urbina estimates it could cost up to $500,000 for a tribe to get their justice system set up to meet the prerequisites to prosecute non-Indians for domestic violence crimes. “The process will be out of reach for some tribal governments without significant assistance from the federal government, but in order to get this law passed, no money was appropriated for that purpose,” says Urbina.
Nonetheless, the Pascua Yaqui are in a financial position to bring justice long delayed to women on their reservation and they are wasting no time in getting started. Says Eid, “Nothing could be more important for a tribal government to do. This has been an area where law and order breaks down. It’s important that this works.” Urbina puts it this way: “There is nothing more basic than the right to live in peace. Everything else flows from that.”
These are the American Indian reservations the Department of Interior plans to focus on in the next phase of a $1.9 billion buyback program of fractionated land parcels to turn over to tribal governments. The program is part of a $3.4 billion settlement over mismanaged money held in trust by the U.S. government for individual Indian landowners.
— Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana.
— Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of the Cheyenne River Reservation, South Dakota.
— Coeur D’Alene Tribe of the Coeur D’Alene Reservation, Idaho.
— Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, Montana.
— Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation, Oregon.
— Crow Tribe, Montana.
— Fort Belknap Indian Community of the Fort Belknap Reservation of Montana.
— Gila River Indian Community of the Gila River Indian Reservation, Arizona.
— Lummi Tribe of the Lummi Reservation, Washington.
— Makah Indian Tribe of the Makah Indian Reservation, Washington.
— Navajo Nation, Arizona.
— Northern Cheyenne Tribe of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, Montana.
— Oglala Sioux Tribe of the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota.
— Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, Kansas.
— Quapaw Tribe of Indians, Oklahoma.
— Quinault Tribe of the Quinault Reservation, Washington.
— Rosebud Sioux Tribe of the Rosebud Indian Reservation, South Dakota.
— Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation, North Dakota and South Dakota.
— Squaxin Island Tribe of the Squaxin Island Reservation, Washington.
— Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North Dakota and South Dakota.
— Swinomish Indians of the Swinomish Reservation, Washington.
FILE – In this May 7, 2014, file photo, residents make their way along First Street in the village of Tanana, Alaska. Without a jail or even armed law enforcement, the isolated Alaska village where two state troopers were shot and killed is turning to a traditional form of justice: banishment. The Tanana Village Council, the Athabascan Indian tribal authority in the village of 250, is taking steps to expel two men whose actions contributed to the homicides and who have threatened other community members, council Chairman Curtis Sommer said. (AP Photo/Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Eric Engman, File)
By Dan Joling, The Associated Press
Without a jail or even armed law enforcement, the isolated Alaska village where two state troopers were shot and killed is turning to a traditional form of justice: banishment.
The Tanana Village Council, the Athabascan Indian tribal authority in the village of 250, is taking steps to expel two men whose actions contributed to the homicides and who have threatened other community members, council Chairman Curtis Sommer said.
“This is the only way we have to remove individuals who are — how do we say it? — who are dangerous to members of the community,” Sommer said.
The action is infrequent in Alaska, and when it is used, some question whether a tribal entity has the right to limit access to a community otherwise governed by state law. Those who are banished rarely contest the action publicly, and it isn’t clear if banished residents go on to cause problems in other communities because no one tracks them.
“We like to think that we have the right to travel wherever we want,” said Anchorage attorney Wayne Anthony Ross, who former Gov. Sarah Palin nominated for Alaska attorney general in 2009. “On the other hand, a small village should have the right to decide who they want to live in that village, specifically if that person is a troublemaker. I can see both sides of it.”
If it’s not lawful, it should be, said Heather Kendall-Miller, senior staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund in Anchorage. Tribal councils always have attempted to protect the peace.
“It seems to me like a reasonable approach to avoid violent situations, especially when you have no law enforcement providers within a community,” she said. “Try to pre-empt a bad situation before it happens.”
Tanana is on the Yukon River, a traditional transportation artery in Alaska’s vast interior. More than a century after changing from trading site to permanent community, Tanana has a school, clinic and store but no mental health treatment facilities and no connection to the highway system.
The state can’t afford to pay for law enforcement in small villages like this but they also refuse to let tribes have full authority over law enforcement, beyond an unarmed public safety officer, Kendall-Miller said. State troopers are flown in to deal with violence, but they can sometimes take days to arrive.
The latest trouble in Tanana began when Arvin Kangas, 58, drove into town without a license and pointed a gun at the unarmed village public safety officer, investigators said. He called Alaska State Troopers, and one day later, on May 1, Sgt. Scott Johnson and Trooper Gabe Rich flew to Tanana. As they tried to arrest Kangas, his son, Nathanial “Satch” Kangas, 20, shot and killed the officers, investigators said.
The village council later voted to banish Arvin Kangas and a second man who has assaulted tribal employees, Sommer said. The matter, after legal review, will be presented to the tribal court for a final decision at an undetermined date.
Banishment is not limited to Athabascan communities. Last August, a man identified as a drug supplier stepped off a flight to Sand Point, a city with strong Aleut and Scandinavian roots at the beginning of the Aleutian Chain. A semi-circle of residents informed the man he was not welcome. They bought him a return ticket and he never left the airport terminal, said Tina Anderson, who witnessed the exchange. The fishing community has a high rate of drug abuse.
“We’re tired of it, and we’re concerned about the future of the community,” she said.
Akiak, a Yupik Eskimo village in southwest Alaska, voted in April 2013 to ban a man suspected of bootlegging and dealing drugs.
Sommer concedes banishment is a “slippery slope.”
“It’s got to be very significant circumstances that would warrant this, either violent assaults or murder,” he said. “At what point do we draw the line on this? I do not know. I do know it’s not going to be used frivolously just to get back at someone.”
The village council will ask the state to enforce banishments. The Alaska Department of Law said it would carefully evaluate a banishment order. Kendall-Miller has seen unofficial support in the past.
“We have seen state police officers that have attempted to accommodate the tribal council’s blue ticket orders by helping to prevent individuals from coming back,” Kendall-Miller said. “It has been an informal arrangement that was done out of necessity.”
“If they do not enforce it, we will enforce it ourselves. We will get a group of men together and go to that person and tell him to leave and to not come back.”
WASHINGTON, DC – The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) congratulates Diane J. Humetewa of the Hopi Indian Tribe on her confirmation as federal judge in the U.S. District Court of Arizona. As the newest member of the federal bench, she is the first Native American woman ever appointed to serve in that position.
The Honorable Humetewa is impeccably qualified for her new role. She has practiced law in federal courts for over a decade – as Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, as Assistant U.S. Attorney, and as the U.S. Attorney for Arizona – and is experienced in a wide array of complex proceedings, hearings, and cases.
Further, Judge Humetewa has dedicated time to serving the interests of Native peoples. She has been the Appellate Court judge for the Hopi Tribe, counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and special advisor to the President on American Indian Affairs at Arizona State University.
NCAI greatly appreciates the efforts of the President and Senate in achieving this historic confirmation. There are many qualified, talented people like Diane Humetewa in Indian Country who are able and willing to serve. We eagerly anticipate many more nominations of Native people to the federal bench and other offices.
A video game that draws from Alaskan Inupiat culture is expected to be released this fall.
Never Alone is the first title from Upper One Games, a joint venture between the Cook Inlet Tribal Council and E-Line Media of New York.
“We call it an atmospheric puzzle platformer,” says Sean Vesce of E-Line Media.
“The game stars two characters: an Inupiat girl named Nuna and her unlikely companion, an Arctic fox. The game provides an adventure in which the two characters must work together to overcome challenges.”
Each of the characters has unique skills and abilities. The game can be played by a single player, who can switch between the two characters at any time, or by two players.
Never Alone is the first title from Upper One Games, a joint venture between the Cook Inlet Tribal Council and E-Line Media of New York. (courtesy of Upper One Games)
Vesce says it’s styled as a 2-D side scroller, where players jump and run through perilous environments found in the North slope such as ice fields, ice floes and forests.
The over-arching storyline is told by an Inupiat storyteller.
Amy Fredeen, executive vice president of both the Cook Inlet Tribal Council and Upper One Games, says the game highlights the value Inupiat culture puts on interdependence.
She says the tribal council chose to found Upper One Games to connect with the growing population of Inupiat youth.
“What’s been really phenomenal is seeing the video game come around as a new way of storytelling,” she says.
“Indigenous people have always had an indigenous way of learning, and we have our Western models that we work within now, but we’ve always held on to our storytelling and our dancing as a way to pass wisdom and knowledge. And this is just another new way we’re going to be able to share this with the younger generation.”
She also says the game is an invitation to anyone to learn more about Inupiat culture.
The game is expected to be released this fall for PS4, Xbox One and PC.
LUMMI ISLAND – The Lummi Island Heritage Trust wants to buy quarry land on the island for conservation and low-impact recreation with saltwater access.
“We’re interested in doing what we can to protect it,” said Rebecca Rettmer, executive director of the trust.
The land trust is negotiating with Resource Transition Consultants, the receiver for Lummi Rock quarry, to buy 105 acres on the southeast side of the island near Scenic Estates.
While receivership is an alternative to bankruptcy, it is similar in that creditors must line up to get paid under the direction of the receiver.
Lummi Rock and its operator, Aggregates West of Everson, have both turned their assets over to Resource Transition Consultants, which is charged with selling off those assets to pay the companies’ debts.
The companies have been in receivership since 2013.
Both sides declined to reveal the trust’s purchase offer. But Resource Transition Consultants’ Robert Nall said it was too low.
“We felt it was substantially below fair market value,” he said of the offer, adding that as receiver his company must by court order maximize the value of the companies’ assets.
Nall’s company had an appraisal done and then gave that to the land trust for evaluation.
Resource Transition Consultants would like to sell the property to the trust, provided it can get a fair-market value for the land or something close, Nall said.
“I think that would be a wonderful solution,” he said.
If the two sides don’t reach a deal, the property eventually will be listed for sale – primarily as a mining asset, Nall said.
When Lummi Rock’s receivership was filed last June in Whatcom County Superior Court, documents listed its most valuable asset as the 114 acres of property it owns at and near the quarry on Lummi Island.
The land was worth $1.55 million, and the company owed more than $10 million to shareholders, Union Bank and other creditors, according to those documents.
Lummi Rock’s mining operations were on 20 acres.
Rettmer went before a Whatcom County Council Natural Resources Committee in January to talk about the project and a possible partnership with the county, including its help in buying the 105 acres.
The land has more than 3,000 feet of saltwater shoreline that includes pocket beaches and critical nearshore habitat, with 80 acres of forestland and wildlife habitat in the upland, according to the trust.
Lummi Island Heritage Trust has conserved 853 acres of land on the island. It owns and manages three preserves that provide public access.
Shoppers enter the Bellingham Costco store Jan. 8, 2013. City officials are continuing to work on projects designed to clear the way for development of a West Bakerview Road site that could accommodate a new Costco store. THE BELLINGHAM HERALD |Buy Photo
By JOHN STARK
THE BELLINGHAM HERALD May 16, 2014
BELLINGHAM – Lummi Nation and Fred Meyer Stores have appealed the city’s preliminary approval of wetlands, stormwater and street modifications along West Bakerview Road to accommodate a new Costco store.
The appeals will trigger a city hearing examiner review of the development proposal. In technical terms, the review will determine whether City Planning Director Jeff Thomas was justified in issuing a “mitigated determination of non-significance” for the work in and around the proposed Costco store. Thomas’ finding meant that the project could move ahead without a more extensive review of environmental issues, as long as steps were taken to deal with traffic and other impacts.
Brian Heinrich, Mayor Kelli Linville’s executive coordinator, said there was no way to know how long that process might delay final approval of the project. The hearing examiner will set a hearing date after checking with attorneys representing the tribe and Fred Meyer.
“Any delay can have an impact, but we trust the process and are confident that city staff have acted appropriately in application of our land use and environmental regulations,” Heinrich said in an email.
In a press release, Lummi Nation Chairman Tim Ballew said the appeal was based on concern about the project’s potential impact on salmon and the Nooksack River.
“Filling wetlands that nourish salmon-spawning streams is significant,” Ballew said. “It is significant to the health of the river, the Lummi people, and everyone who calls the Nooksack River watershed home. As the steward of the environment, it is the Lummi Nation’s responsibility to protect these waters and the fish that live in them.”
In an email, Heinrich said the city shares the Lummi concern with the environment and salmon. Because of those concerns, the city is following the law in requiring the project to add wetlands to make up for those that will be filled, while restoring a salmon-bearing stream.
Heinrich noted that Lummi Nation also has offered developers the opportunity to compensate for wetland-filling projects by buying shares in the tribe’s wetlands bank to help cover the cost of creating new wetlands to make up for those lost to development.
Lummi Nation has its own long-term plans for major retail development on tribally owned real estate farther north. In the past, tribal leaders have negotiated with the city of Ferndale on division of tax revenues from major retail development of tribally owned property inside that’s city’s boundaries. So far that issue has not been settled, and no specific development plans for the tribal real estate have emerged.
Fred Meyer’s objections to the West Bakerview project are based on traffic impacts on its existing store on the other side of West Bakerview.
“The proposed development will significantly and adversely affect (Fred Meyer’s) interests by, among other things, substantially interfering with access to the Fred Meyer store by unreasonably increasing traffic on West Bakerview Road.”
Seattle attorney Glenn Amster, representing Fred Meyer, asks the hearing examiner to order preparation of an environmental impact statement, or the imposition of other measures to reduce the traffic impacts.
The city already has decided to impose the cost of some traffic improvements on Costco as a condition of city approval, including the construction of added turning lanes for cars entering the site. The city will require Costco to provide a right-turn lane into the store parking lot for westbound traffic, plus an additional left-turn lane for eastbound traffic.
Costco has agreed to pay for those improvements, Heinrich said, but as yet there is no cost estimate.
The 20-acre Costco site is on the north side of West Bakerview Road near Pacific Highway.
