The Snoqualmie Indian Tribe has stewarded and safeguarded the health of the Snoqualmie River watershed and its many ecosystems for millennia – and our Tribe has never felt more concerned about the future of the river that carries our name.

By every scientific standard, the Snoqualmie River is in crisis, suffering from an extreme drought and over-allocation of its limited water volume. United States Geological Survey stream flow gauges in the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River are showing that we are close to the lowest flows in the last 60 years of monitoring, which can have catastrophic impacts to local ecosystems.

That is why the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe has declared a State of Emergency on the Snoqualmie River and are calling on our governmental and NGO partners to urgently reconsider actions that are detrimental to the river’s health.

A key factor in the river’s degradation is the selfish actions of the City of Snoqualmie and the State Department of Ecology under Governor Bob Ferguson, who are draining the watershed and overcharging average citizens for that resource, all to subsidize a wealthy country club.

While the ecosystems suffer, the City of Snoqualmie is prioritizing filling an artificial lake and irrigating The Club at Snoqualmie Ridge, an exclusive, members-only golf course where initiation fees reportedly range from $20,000–$40,000 and annual dues exceed $10,000. The State Department of Ecology, which is responsible for securing water resources for multiples uses, has repeatedly refused to take action against the City to limit such wasteful and self-indulgent uses of an irreplaceable natural and cultural resource.

Each year, during the driest 150 days between May and September, when river flows are at their lowest, the City pumps an average of 290 acre-feet of water (94 million gallons) from its wastewater treatment plant into Eagle Lake, a man-made reservoir used to irrigate the private course. In peak years, use has reached 347 acre-feet (113 million gallons). Most of this valuable water will not return to the aquifer or the river due to the evapotranspiration rate (~85%) of golf course-type grasses, especially during the summer months.

To put this in perspective, the golf course alone uses nearly half the total annual water consumption of the entire City of North Bend, which relies on approximately 615 acre-feet per year for all its households and businesses combined. It is impossible to fully quantify the environmental damage done to fish and wildlife by the loss of the in-stream benefits of this enormous quantity of water.

The City of Snoqualmie further discounts this resource: while ordinary reclaimed water customers pay $4.65 per 100 cubic feet, the golf course is charged only $1.01, a 76 percent discount. That discount amounts to a subsidy of $459,000 (average) to $550,000 (peak) annually, effectively giving away public resources to rich country club members while ordinary citizens and businesses downstream face lower river flows and heightened ecological stress.

Equally troubling is the Department of Ecology under Governor Bob Ferguson and Director Casey Sixkiller allowing the city of Snoqualmie to continue to violate state law passed to protect watersheds from short-sighted decisions. Under state water law, the City is required to mitigate all of its impacts to the river. Concerns were directly raised to the city and the Department of Ecology almost two years ago and have been repeated regularly. This is a failure of leadership and a betrayal of Ecology’s duty to all Washingtonians to protect the river and treat citizens equally and fairly under the law.

The Snoqualmie River is already under pressure from climate change, declining snowpack, and growing demand. Diverting millions of gallons to sustain a private luxury amenity during the hottest months when the River is at its lowest levels undermines both salmon recovery efforts and the long-term sustainability of the watershed. This watershed, its habitats, and its communities are interdependent and responsible for the landscape and cultural identity of the Snoqualmie Valley.

Local residents should call for the City of Snoqualmie and the Washington Department of Ecology to reexamine this arrangement. Water that should help maintain in-stream flows for fish, wildlife, and downstream communities must not be reserved for the exclusive benefit of a high-fee members-only golf course. It is time to put public resources back where they belong — in the Snoqualmie River and the irreplaceable ecosystems and communities it supports.