Judges side with Yakama Nation in water appeal over Goldendale energy project permit
A panel of judges sided with the Yakama Nation and environmental groups in an appeal regarding the water quality permit for the Goldendale Energy Storage Project. The ruling requires the state to rewrite the permit to include monitoring and reporting for tunnel leakage. A data center is also planned on the same site.
A panel of state appellate judges ruled in favor of the Yakama Nation, Columbia Riverkeeper, and the Western Environmental Law Center regarding the water quality certification for the proposed Goldendale Energy Storage Project near Goldendale, Washington. The groups had argued that the original certification, issued by the state's Department of Ecology in 2023 and affirmed by the Pollution Control Hearings Board in 2025, failed to adequately protect the Columbia River's water quality.
The judges' decision mandates that Ecology rewrite the project's water quality certification to incorporate monitoring and reporting requirements for potential leakage from the project's tunnels. The Goldendale Energy Storage Project, a pumped-water storage system developed by Rye Development and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, is planned for a 681-acre site off the Columbia River, also a sacred site for the Yakama Nation known as Pushpum.
Notably, a data center is also slated for development on the former aluminum smelter land, owned by Javi LLC (under registered agent NSC Smelter LLC), which is the same landowner for the energy project. The data center would be situated approximately one mile from a treaty fishing access site on the Columbia River.