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Port Gamble S'klallam Tribe

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Port Gamble S'klallam Tribe PORT GAMBLE S’KLALLAM TRIBE 31912 Little Boston Rd. NE – Kingston, WA 98346 June 14, 2019 Naval Facilities Engineering Command Northwest Attention: NWTT Supplemental EIS/OEIS Project Manager 3730 N. Charles Porter Ave. Building 385, Admin, Room 216 Oak Harbor, WA 98278-5000 SUBJECT: Northwest Training and Testing Supplemental EIS/OEIS Dear Naval Facilities Engineering Command Northwest, On behalf of the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe (PGST), I am providing the following comments with regard to the U.S. Navy’s Northwest Training and Testing program 2019 Supplemental EIS/OEIS. The PGST is concerned that the Navy’s proposed increase in intensity and quantity of training and testing activities to be conducted in the Hood Canal at NBK Bangor, Dabob Bay Range Complex, Indian Island and other locations throughout the Puget Sound will have a significant impact on its treaty rights. The Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe is the successor in interest to Indian bands and tribes signatory to the 1855 Treaty of Point No Point, 12 Stat. 933.1 The S’Klallam people have relied on their fisheries for much of their food supply, pre-dating the signing of the treaty by thousands of years.2 The tribes used all available species of fish, including all six species of salmon, herring and other smaller fish, and shellfish, as well as plants and wildlife. Tribal customs and traditions reflected the importance of the fisheries by proscribing waste, regulating distribution of the catch, and discouraging water pollution.3 An annual First Salmon ceremony expressed the people’s appreciation for their harvest.4 Trade in fish was a major element of the tribal economy, and the tribes developed a vibrant cultural life based on the wealth of their fisheries.5 The Treaty reserved to the S’Klallam the right to take fish at all these “usual and accustomed grounds and stations” (U&A)—an area roughly centered on Port Gamble Bay that includes all of the bay, most of the Hood Canal watersheds, and extends west along the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the Sekiu River, north to the San Juan Islands, east to Whidbey Island, and south through Hood Canal.6 Within these areas, the Port Gamble S’Klallam and other tribes that share the U&A are entitled to take half the harvestable fish and shellfish, and retain the right to access private property to fish and to shellfish.7 1 United States v. Washington, 459 F. Supp. 1020, 1039 (W.D. Wash. 1978) (hereinafter Boldt II). 2 See United States v. Washington, 384 F. Supp. 312, 350-53 (W.D. Wash. 1974), aff’d 520 F.2d 676 (9th Cir. 1975), aff’d sub nom. Washington v. Wash. Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessel Ass’n, 443 U.S. 658 (1979) (hereinafter Boldt I). 3 Id. at 351, 357. 4 Id. at 351. 5 United States v. Washington, 626 F. Supp. 1405, 1433 (W.D. Wash. 1985); Boldt I, 384 F. Supp. at 350. 6 See United States v. Washington, 626 F. Supp. at 1442; Boldt II, 459 F. Supp. at 1041. 7 See, e.g., United States v. Washington, 873 F. Supp. 1422, 1444-45 (W.D. Wash. 1994) (hereinafter Shellfish) PORT GAMBLE S’KLALLAM TRIBE NATURAL RESOURCES DEPARTMENT 31912 Little Boston Rd. NE – Kingston, WA 98346 Today, over 150 years after signing the Treaty of Point No Point, the Tribe retains deep cultural and economic ties to the surrounding waters and to their fisheries. Many tribal members earn all or a portion of their livelihood working as commercial salmon and shellfish fishers. In addition, the Tribe conducts fisheries in its U&A to obtain fish for ceremonial use. Subsistence harvests from the Tribe’s U&A are a key element of the diet of many tribal members. For example, Region 10 of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that the consumption rate for tribal members was approximately 147 pounds of salmon per year, 68 pounds of other fish per year, and 400 pounds of shellfish per year. Fishing activities include crabbing, shrimping, salmon fishing, intertidal clam and oyster gathering, dive fisheries for geoduck and other species and shore-anchored and vessel-based net and line fisheries for salmon and other finfish. The Supplemental DEIS/OEIS proposes to increase the number of pier side sonar testing events at Bangor from 67 events per year to < 174 events per year; the number of unmanned underwater vehicle tests at Dabob Bay from 253 events per year to < 400 events; and the number of NEPM torpedoes tested at Dabob Bay from 41 events per year to 61 events per year, in addition to other increases in the tempo and intensity of training and testing activities throughout the Puget Sound. Every five years, as the Navy increases the existing NWTT exercises and adds new exercises, the environmental impacts to natural and cultural resources will increase. The Tribe is concerned that these NWTT activities will directly, indirectly and cumulatively impact tribal access and treaty resources within its usual and accustomed fishing area. We are concerned that the NWTT program incrementally threatens the Tribe’s treaty right leading to damaged marine sediment, declining water and air quality, and degraded marine habitat. Cumulative effects from increased acoustic sonar and other acoustic devices, underwater explosions, weapons firing, aircraft noise, vessel noise, electromagnetic signals, target strikes, in-water device strikes, expended materials, seafloor devices, cables and wires, release of air pollutants, explosives, metals, chemicals and other materials, physical disturbance, limited accessibility, underwater energy and physical interactions will impact natural and cultural resources and tribal fisheries in the Tribe’s usual and accustomed area. The NWTT explosions and byproducts of explosions and combusted propellants, as well as unexploded ordnance, non-combusted propellant, metals, chemicals and other materials will have impacts to water quality. Increased criteria pollutant emissions and hazardous air pollutant emissions from vessels, aircraft and munitions will impact air quality. Acoustic stressors (underwater detonations) and physical disturbance or strikes (interactions with vessels and in-water devices, military expended materials, or seafloor devices) will affect marine habitats. Potential impacts include localized disturbance of the seafloor, cratering of soft- bottom sediments, and structural damage to hard-bottom habitats. Impacts on marine mammals may include mortality, injury, and disturbance or behavioral modification, caused by underwater explosions or vessel strikes, sonar use, noise and pollution. Cumulative impacts to sea turtles may include mortality, injury, disturbance or behavior modification caused by underwater explosions, vessel strikes, sonar use, noise, pollution and habitat loss. Phone: (360) 297-4792 Fax: (360) 297-4791 2 PORT GAMBLE S’KLALLAM TRIBE NATURAL RESOURCES DEPARTMENT 31912 Little Boston Rd. NE – Kingston, WA 98346 Impacts to birds may include mortality, injury, disturbance or behavioral modification from underwater explosions, air strikes or vessel strikes, noise, pollution, and habitat loss. NWTT activities such as underwater explosions, interactions with vessels and in-water devices, military expended materials or seafloor devices could also affect marine vegetation, including localized disturbance and mortality. Acoustic stressors (tactical acoustic sonar, other acoustic devices, pile driving, underwater explosions, weapons firing noise, aircraft noise, vessel noise), electromagnetic stressors, physical disturbance or strikes (vessels and in-water devices, military expended materials, seafloor devices), entanglement (cables and wires, parachutes), and ingestion (military expended materials) may affect marine invertebrates. Underwater explosions or vessel strikes, sonar use, noise and pollution may cause fish mortality, injury, disturbance or behavioral modification. In addition to the NWTT exercises, the increased vessel traffic associated with these exercises will have a significant cumulative effect. Vessel activity from all projects in aggregate will impact tribal fisheries and access to traditional fishing and harvesting areas throughout Hood Canal. Cumulative vessel traffic limits harvesting and fishing during scheduled fish and shellfish openings, by requiring that fishing boats leave or stay away from particular areas of the Hood Canal to avoid vessel activity. Tribal fishers and harvesters also face the increased threat of lost or damaged gear from increase vessel traffic through fishing and harvesting areas. Having promised to secure the Tribes their fisheries, the Navy has a fiduciary duty to fulfill that promise and protect the Tribe’s treaty rights. Exercising that trust responsibility requires the Navy to analyze and select action alternatives that do not add to the collective impact of the Navy’s actions on the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe’s treaty rights. The Navy should consider the cumulative impacts of vessel traffic, waves, and wakes, the cumulative destruction of habitat, stresses on aquatic species, risks of spills and releases, and other impacts from vessel activities on the Tribe’s fisheries. In the aggregate, the Navy’s projects and many other activities in the Hood Canal have a significant effect on the timing, location, quality and quantity of harvest for tribal members. The DEIS/OEIS for the proposed NWTT should take account of contributions toward the cumulative effects of activities encroaching on tribal resources and fisheries within the PGST’s usual and accustomed areas. Please contact me at [email protected] or (360) 297-6293 with any questions or to provide any additional information about the proposed NWTT project. Sincerely, Roma Call Environmental Program Manager Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe Phone: (360) 297-4792 Fax: (360) 297-4791 3 .
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