The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community submitted multiple questions and concerns about the Rosaraio Tidal Project to Orcas Power & Light Cooperative (OPALCO) in October of 2024. These comments included multiple requests for more information about potential impacts, including impacts to the seabed and benthic habitats essential to marine life in Rosario Strait and beyond.
OPALCO responded in large part by dismissing the requests for more information, saying more information will be supplied at Draft License Application time. This reflects what Protect The Coast PNW representatives heard repeated at the recent town halls in response to our own questions.
On January 15, 2025, OPALCO was issued a preliminary permit by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Residents of San Juan County had not been made aware of OPALCO’s permit application in October 2024; indeed, OPALCO made no mention of this permit application in any of its newsletters to OPALCO rate payers. They are required by FERC to publish information about the permit application prior to application, which OPALCO did, but in an online journal not specific to San Juan County, and behind a paywall. These announcements are no longer available online.
On February 26, 2025, the Swinomish Tribe sent a letter to FERC stating that OPALCO has not properly responded to the Tribe’s detailed concerns and questions. As stated in their letter, OPALCO has “deferred any meaningful response to our information requests and stated concerns until the Draft License Application (DLA). This failure to engage in any meaningful discussion about the project or share any substantive information greatly limits the Tribe’s ability to engage in the process and instead results in the Tribe taking the formal position to object to the project.“
Despite OPALCO’s frequent assertion that they are following the tribal engagement process, the Swinomish states that there appears “to be limited effort to engage the Swinomish Tribe as equal partners in decision-making.”
The community response to OPALCO’s response is damning for OPALCO. Not only has OPALCO utterly failed to supply the requested information, they are “overwhelmingly non-responsive” to the Tribe’s concerns.
Protect The Coast PNW agrees. Many of the questions we asked about the tidal project at the recent town hall events were met with “We don’t know.” This is unacceptable for a project of this size and potential impact to fragile Salish Sea waters.
Full comments from the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community to the FERC, February 26, 2025