气候变化领域集成服务门户

In an interview, Michael Kearney, head of product sales and leasing at DNR, said, “I do understand the concerns with the project proponent hiring their own specialists,” adding that “there are potential pitfalls with that.” But he said the agency doesn’t regulate renewable energy developers and can’t force developers to edit their cultural survey reports.

“We generally consider that to be a proprietary or business relationship,” Kearney told High Country News and ProPublica. “We’re not really playing that regulatory function.”

Palmer, however, felt compelled to step in.

After conducting her field work, Palmer emailed her colleagues: “I consider it unlikely that Tetra Tech will be able to produce a legally defensible technical document.”

Palmer said her findings quickly escalated tensions. “What I had seen was very inconvenient to the development plans out there, and it was clearly something that the project proponents did not like,” Palmer told HCN and ProPublica. She believed that it put DNR leadership in a “very uncomfortable situation where they had an unhappy, politically connected developer.” Neither Avangrid nor DNR would comment on this characterization.

Avangrid itself pushed back.

On May 5, 2022, about two weeks after Palmer emailed her findings to DNR colleagues, Avangrid’s director of business development, Brian Walsh, sent her a string of urgent text messages, which HCN and ProPublica obtained through a public records request. After Palmer said she wasn’t available to talk, Walsh insisted that she keep her findings private and not share them with the tribes.

“I wanted to make sure any comments or concerns based on your field visit to Badger Mtn remain internal until we have had a time to discuss w peer professionals,” Walsh wrote. “We would like the opportunity to discuss any of your concerns before they are communicated externally, especially w the tribes.”

In fact, Palmer was at Badger Mountain that day — showing her findings to a Colville tribal archaeologist. DNR shares cultural surveys with the tribes, and Palmer regularly communicated with tribal archaeologists.

“Can you respond to my question on any external communications that you have made on Badger cultural?” Walsh persisted. “Specifically the tribes.” Palmer did not respond.

On May 12, 2022, after Palmer told the Yakama Nation about her findings on Badger Mountain, tribal leaders sent a letter to the state, saying the deficiencies in Tetra Tech’s report had far-reaching implications, since the company was doing other work on Yakama lands as well. “At this time we will not accept cultural resources work conducted by this contractor,” wrote Casey Barney, manager of Yakama Nation’s cultural resources program.

In response, DNR held a series of meetings with other agencies, Avangrid and tribal representatives. Handwritten DNR meeting notes obtained through a public records request show that Walsh told DNR officials that Palmer had gone “rogue.” DNR confirmed that this was Walsh’s characterization of Palmer.

According to Palmer, DNR leadership stopped including her in meetings with Avangrid and appointed the agency’s clean energy program manager, Dever Haffner-Ratliffe, as the sole point of communication with Walsh.

Agency group chats show that Tetra Tech instructed its staff not to speak with Palmer, even regarding other projects, for “political” reasons.

We would like the opportunity to discuss any of your concerns before they are communicated externally, especially w the tribes.

Emails from June 10, 2022, show that Walsh asked for the power to vet external agency communications before they went out to the tribes or other agencies and threatened to pull Avangrid’s business — by moving the project forward on private lands only, depriving the state of any potential revenues — if the agency didn’t comply. He also asked DNR to issue Avangrid a lease before the state’s environmental review process was complete; DNR and Walsh acknowledged this was something the agency had done for him before under other circumstances. Haffner-Ratliffe told Walsh that neither would be possible.

But DNR had been sending Walsh mixed signals. Before his exchanges with Haffner-Ratliffe, the agency had already given Avangrid a letter of intent to lease once the review process was complete, for Walsh to show to his superiors. And the agency had allowed Walsh to vet a draft of the letter before sending it out.

Emails show that DNR intended the letter to assure Avangrid that Walsh was making progress securing the land, even while the environmental review process was pending. And the agency knew it had to be careful, because the letter could give the impression externally that it had made the decision to lease before the environmental review was complete.

Even after Haffner-Ratliffe denied Walsh’s requests for a lease and approval to vet communications, he kept pushing. He kept repeating these requests and asked her to cite state laws supporting her denial of them; he also asked her to loop in a supervisor who could authorize her reply.

By the end of the year, another state lands archaeologist besides Palmer had emailed Haffner-Ratliffe regarding Walsh’s behavior in meetings, saying he had been “combative and provocative to me in particular,” and tried to “bully me into giving him the answers he wanted.” The interactions, she wrote, left her shaking and in a cold sweat.

On Dec. 21, 2022, Haffner-Ratliffe emailed DNR leadership asking them to address Walsh’s behavior toward at least three women within the agency. “I’ve experienced him yelling at me in meetings,” she wrote, adding that he had demanded preferential treatment and asked staff to violate state laws. “So far, the direction I’ve received has primarily been that I should listen, be cooperative, and communicative.” Avangrid and Walsh, who has since left his position at the company, denied asking DNR to violate any state laws.

DNR spokespeople said the agency addressed some of Haffner-Ratliffe’s specific concerns, like making sure managers were present in meetings with Walsh and giving staff the authority to end meetings or phone calls if they became uncomfortable. Nevertheless, Haffner-Ratliffe left the agency in January 2023. In her resignation letter, she said she was leaving because of a “lack of support” and “unprofessional behavior by clients and peers going unaddressed.”

Haffner-Ratliffe declined a request to comment for this story.

Walsh told HCN and ProPublica that Avangrid conducted an internal investigation into his conduct and cleared him of any wrongdoing. Avangrid declined to comment on Walsh’s claim.

Palmer continued to advocate for accurate documentation of cultural resources. On Oct. 31, 2022, Tetra Tech updated its cultural survey to reflect some of Palmer’s findings, listing more stone structures.

But Palmer told DNR colleagues that the updates were inadequate. “A number of resources that I have observed in the field are not included in this documentation or in previous documentation I have seen from Tetra Tech,” she wrote in an email obtained through a public records request.

Palmer added that date estimates were also off, and some stone features were mischaracterized as natural formations, while others were missing entirely.

Still, in May 2023, Avangrid submitted Tetra Tech’s updated survey, which then became available to the Colville Tribes and Yakama Nation for feedback.

Avangrid representatives said they were unaware of the issues with the initial survey and, when they became aware of them, modified their project plans to accommodate the tribally significant sites. They acknowledged that the state concluded that the updates were inadequate.

A number of tribal officials and sources in state agencies told HCN and ProPublica that tribal opposition to a cultural survey rarely, if ever, makes a difference. But this time it did.

The permitting authority for the Badger Mountain project is a state agency called the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council. The agency has the power to recommend proposed renewable energy developments to the governor for project permits. Additionally, it will produce the environmental impact statement and oversee the process of satisfying state environmental regulations.

The Colville Tribes and Yakama Nation both filed official comments with EFSEC stating that Tetra Tech’s updates failed to address their concerns. According to the Colville Tribes’ comments, the survey included only four of the archaeological sites that Palmer had found and missed additional sites recorded by a Colville tribal archaeologist. The Yakama Nation requested a full redo of Tetra Tech’s cultural survey by an independent third party. And this time, tribal concerns were echoed by comments from DNR and the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation.

By October 2023, EFSEC commissioned an independent cultural survey. Karl Holappa, EFSEC’s public information officer, told HCN and ProPublica that agency leaders do not recall ever previously commissioning an independent cultural survey, and a public records request shows that there’s no record of one at least in the past decade.

Holappa said in an email that EFSEC took this step to “ensure confidence in the outcome of the Survey by all parties.” He added that the new cultural survey will replace Avangrid’s and that the date of completion will partly depend on when the snow melts, making the ground visible again.

The new cultural survey doesn’t necessarily mean that EFSEC will recommend against issuing a permit for the Badger Mountain project. “I’ve never had EFSEC stop a project on cultural resources — not that I’m aware of,” said Allyson Brooks, the historic preservation officer in charge of the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation. Holappa said EFSEC doesn’t have the authority to stop a project during the site evaluation process. DNR and the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation also said they lack the power to approve or deny a project.

Still, EFSEC can advise the governor not to permit the project, and DNR could also withhold a lease. State law does authorize agencies to deny a proposed project if it would have significant impacts and insufficient mitigations.