I attended both the tour of the proposed sites and the meeting in Index.

I wasn't exactly sure how I felt about project until I saw the sites and listened to the plan, or to be more precise, their lack of planning.

This entire thing seems to be a way to sell power to California.....at any cost. This dam will only supply power during times when there is a surplus of power in WA, late fall and spring, the flows won't typically be high enough in the summer or winter.

While on the tour there were several conversations with PUD that included questions they had no answers for, as in most questions. The answer was frequently, "well we have several options and nothing has been decided yet", or “further studies will be needed". This included the amount of water left flowing in the main river, makeup of the rock they plan to tunnel through, whether the harmonic vibration from the water running through the 19' diameter tunnel will be heard or felt by the home owners near it (it runs directly under some people’s property), whether the vibration will weaken the surrounding rock (it’s a very brittle type of granite), will the rock release heavy metals that can contaminate the river downstream when new surfaces are exposed as it has in other tunnel projects, how will it affect fish and other wildlife, etc.

The first question asked at the meeting was whether a cost analysis had been done and would this project at least break even. They had no answer because they didn’t have that information. This answer was right in line with the answers given during the tour. The opponents that spoke did a very job of pointing out how bad of an idea this is, and how it goes against state law (minor issue).

There was more, but it’s getting late.