State needs to address long-term climate change costs

Harborites struggle while groceries, rent and insurance skyrocket.

Most are unaware that the increasing burden of climate change will make everything even more expensive. Our state is failing to cut climate emissions. State agencies promote false climate solutions like exporting wood pellets to burn in Asia, while failing to protect irreplaceable wetlands and legacy forests, which safely absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The people of Grays Harbor are left on their own to play Whack-a-Mole with absurd state-agency-promoted projects like a golf course at Westport that destroys the second-largest rare interdunal wetland in our state, and a pellet plant in Hoquiam. The state is studying resource-gobbling boondoggles like data center expansion and “sustainable” aviation fuel.

We can’t afford to make these big mistakes. We must meet our needs today in a way that minimizes long-term climate change costs and leaves a healthy future for our children.

Donna Albert

Montesano

Proposed Westport golf course deserves more scrutiny

The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the proposed Westport Golf Links in Westport Light State Park deserves far more scrutiny.

Too often it reads less like an objective scientific analysis and more like promotional copy — asserting conclusions without the evidence needed to support them.

The Washington State Department of Ecology’s comment letter, available on the Washington Parks Planning page under Westport Light State Park (Department Of Ecology DEIS Response June 9) raises multiple concerns. A few stand out.

The DEIS relies on a coastal study by Herrera that uses a narrow 25-year window and a methodology that fails to account for climate-driven increases in erosion. This study was commissioned after a more comprehensive Aecom study, completed the prior year, had already documented longer-term risks that did include climate impacts.

We are long past the point where climate extremes — heavier rain, stronger storms and accelerated erosion — can be treated as optional considerations. Both studies are posted on the city of Westport website.

The DEIS claims the project would cause “negligible” changes to sand movement yet offers no data to support this. Vegetation removal will increase sand mobility, and once built, a golf course relies on turf only an inch or so tall — far too short to meaningfully slow wind-driven sand transport. The DEIS simply asserts an outcome rather than demonstrating it.

Also repeatedly stated is that there will be “no significant unavoidable adverse impacts to surface water quality” from fertilizer, pesticide or herbicide use. Yet the only evidence offered is the report Water Quality Impacts from PNW Golf Courses (Envirologic 2024), which itself relies on literature searches and concludes only that there are “limited to no impacts.” That is not the same as affirming “no significant impacts,” and the DEIS treats this qualified language as factual.

No one, and no “Best Management Practices” planning can guarantee there will not be systemic, ongoing pollution.

Another huge impact in the Westport Golf Links plan is the loss of Category 1 wetlands — among the rarest and most ecologically valuable in the state. The footprint of the proposed course removes the equivalent of roughly 35 football fields of these wetlands. The DEIS does not provide a defensible path for avoiding or mitigating this loss.

The DEIS leans on optimistic assumptions and unsupported assertions. Claims of “Best Management Practices” attempt to frame intensive chemical management as benign, but the evidence presented isn’t sufficient justification for those conclusions.

We should be safeguarding our state parks, not treating them as opportunities for resource extraction or commercial ventures. These landscapes exist for the public good and for environmental protection, not private profit.

I encourage everyone to read the Department of Ecology’s letter. Please take a few moments and share your comments at the parks planning website because your voice may be the only way to stop this development.

If we let the mission of our state parks lead the way — as it should — this golf course, and any commercial development, will be denied.

Meghan Anderson

Grayland