Friends of Grays Harbor warns about Chehalis dam proposal
Published 1:30 am Saturday, January 17, 2026
Friends of Grays Harbor (FOGH) Thursday issued a critique of the Washington Department of Ecology’s Revised Draft Environmental Impact Statement (REIS) for the proposed Chehalis River flood retention facility.
In a formal comment letter submitted to state officials, the volunteer-led advocacy group argues that the $2 billion project will lead to the collapse of vital coastal fisheries and relies on “illegal segmentation” to hide the project’s true ecological and financial costs.
“This is not just an environmental issue; it is a direct threat to the survival of the Grays Harbor economy,” said Arthur Grunbaum, President of FOGH. “The state’s own study admits that this dam will push spring Chinook toward extinction and raise water temperatures by up to 9 degrees. For our crabbers and oyster growers downstream, that isn’t just a statistic — it’s a death knell for their livelihoods. We hope that our comments will help inform the public what is truly at stake.”
The FOGH comment letter highlights several critical failures in the 2025/2026 REIS, including:
Threat to shellfish and crabbing: The dam would disrupt nutrient cycling and sediment transport, potentially smothering oyster beds and starving Dungeness crab nurseries in the Grays Harbor estuary.
Illegal piecemealing: FOGH alleges the state is violating SEPA laws by separating the dam’s review from the broader Chehalis Basin Strategy, masking the cumulative damage to salmon recovery.
Obsolescence by design: Climate modeling in the REIS suggests that by 2080, intensifying atmospheric rivers will render the dam’s 62,000 acre-feet capacity insufficient, while the Local Actions Non-Dam (LAND) alternative offers permanent, scalable protection.
Seismic and landslide risks: The group points to high earthquake probabilities and geological instability that could lead to catastrophic landslides into the temporary reservoir, a risk FOGH claims is under-analyzed.
FOGH is calling on the Department of Ecology to issue a Finding of Significance” and pivot funding toward the LAND alternative, which prioritizes moving homes out of the floodplain, strengthening land use policies and forestry practices, and restoring natural resilience.
“Spending billions on an unproven 20th-century solution for a 21st-century climate crisis is a gamble we can’t afford,” Grunbaum added. “We must protect the living river economy that supports our coastal communities today and for future generations.”
Comments on the REIS will be accepted by Ecology until Feb. 4. You can mail to
SEPA Revised Draft EIS for Chehalis Flood Damage Reduction Project
c/o Bobbak Talebi, Southwest Region Office
P.O. Box 47775 Olympia, WA 98504-7775
Or you can comment online via https://admin.ecology.commentinput.com/?id=6U54ErkfW.
Friends of Grays Harbor is a 100% volunteer 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to protecting the natural environment, human health, and the economic uniqueness of Washington’s estuaries.
