News

It’s been a rough week for anyone who cares about the future of our environment and about preventing the worst impacts of climate change. 

Last week, it became clear that a majority of American voters had picked a president who has promised to repeal President Joe Biden’s historic climate-change initiatives contained within the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), threatened to pull the United States from international efforts to halt climate change and said he “doesn’t believe in” climate change despite, as Cornell University reported in 2021, 99.9% of peer-reviewed climate-related scientific papers agreeing that climate change is real and that “human activities are altering Earth’s climate.” 

This week, we’ve discovered just how bad it might get under a second Donald Trump administration. The incoming president has said he plans to nominate former Republican New York congressman Lee Zeldin as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Zeldin is known for, as Salon magazine recently put it, his “abysmal environmental record,” his votes against environmental protections and his incredibly low lifetime environmental score of just 14% from the League of Conservation Voters. 

Trump has said Zeldin “will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet.”

Oh really? So the head of the EPA will deregulate polluting corporations — taking away the public’s safeguards that require companies to put environmental safety and the public’s well-being over cutting corners — but that will result in “the cleanest air and water on the planet?” 

We could wonder why anyone would believe such a statement, but after reading about so many people who voted for Trump because they believed his tariffs will cause prices to go down instead of understanding that these tariffs will just pass higher costs on to consumers, we have come to believe that the majority of Americans either believe Trump’s lies or haven’t been exposed to balanced media sources that highlight the negative impacts of Trump’s policies. 

Regardless, there is little doubt that a second Trump administration will be disastrous for our environment — including that “clean air and water” — and for the climate gains won under the Biden-Harris administration.

“The nation and world can expect the incoming Trump administration to take a wrecking ball to global climate diplomacy,” Rachel Cleetus, policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, recently told The Guardian.

“Trump’s agenda, analysts have found, risks adding several billion (tons) of extra heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere, further imperiling goals to stave off disastrous global heating that governments are already failing to meet,” The Guardian noted. 

Camas residents will soon learn more about how climate change is poised to wreak havoc locally. 

As consultants told Camas Planning Commission members last month, there are six likely climate-related hazards that will threaten the Camas community over the next few decades, including extreme heat and extreme precipitation, which ranked as “high hazards;” as well as landslides, flooding, wildfires, wildfire smoke and drought.

“More hot days in the summer will increase the risk of heat-related illness and may disrupt daily activities,” the consultants warned in their report. “Heat is expected to increase demand for water and electricity (for air-conditioning).” 

Likewise, the consultants noted that “heavy rains can overwhelm drainage systems, collapse roadways, make driving unsafe, and lead to landslides and floods.”
The City’s report on climate change hazards also noted that “heavy rains cause flooding that may inundate homes, businesses, roads and agricultural areas, leading to costly property damage and health impacts … (and) heavy precipitation increases the risk of landslides by saturating the ground and loosening soil” which could “damage natural areas, buildings and infrastructure in their path,” leaving debris that “may block roads pollute waterways and displace people living nearby.” 

And then there are the wildfire risks. The consultants told the Commission that “hotter, drier conditions increase the potential for wildfires, which may burn near populated areas, causing evacuations and property damage,” and noted that smoke from wildfires also poses a health risk as it can “damage human health and disrupt daily activities.” 

Washington voters managed to save the state’s Climate Commitment Act, but the installation of Trump into the White House yet again means that historic climate legislation passed by Biden through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is in peril. Trump has threatened to repeal the IRA and claw back its unspent dollars — which included nearly $5.3 billion over the next five years for clean power and other climate projects in Washington state.

And while it’s hard to feel anything even close to positive about the state of our environment right now, giving in to despair is so much worse. There are scores of environmental groups we have access to in this part of the nation — and so many of them are laying the groundwork to fight Trump’s destructive environmental policies. Now is the time to join with other environmentally minded folks and figure out how your individual talents might contribute to a statewide, nationwide and even worldwide effort to protect our natural resources, preserve our trees, plants and wildlife and mitigate the impacts of climate change to save our own communities. For ideas of environmental groups to join or support, visit eco-usa.net/orgs/wa.html, tinyurl.com/5f5p3adx or environmentalgroups.us/washington.

Canfield, Sandra K., 66, Washougal, died Nov. 10, 2024. Brown’s Funeral Home and Cremation Services, 360-834-3692.

Cox, Jeremiah R., 47, Washougal, died Nov. 5, 2024. All County Cremation and Burial Services, 360-718-7948.

Durkee, Ronald G., 88, Camas, died Nov. 6, 2024. Straub’s Funeral Home, 360-834-4563.

Graves, Judy M., 86, Vancouver, died Oct. 30, 2024. Brown’s Funeral Home and Cremation Services, 360-834-3692.

Jones, Dorothy B., 95, Camas, died Nov. 4, 2024. Straub’s Funeral Home, 360-834-4563.

Lawler, Albert E., 92, Camas, died Nov. 5, 2024. Straub’s Funeral Home, 360-834-4563.

McAllister, Darlia M., 75, Vancouver, died Nov. 2, 2024. Straub’s Funeral Home,

360-834-4563.

Rink, Michael W., 69, Washougal, died Nov. 5, 2024. Straub’s Funeral Home, 360-834-4563.

Schiefelbein, Jack L., 79, Battle Ground, died Oct. 31, 2024. Straub’s Funeral Home, 360-834-4563.

Skoke, Jeffrey M., 60, Portland, Oregon, died Oct. 28, 2024. Brown’s Funeral Home and Cremation Services, 360-834-3692.

City of Washougal leaders are optimistic that they’ll be able to fund their 32nd Street rail crossing project despite initial cost estimates coming in higher than originally projected.

City engineer Scott Collins told the Council during the Nov. 4 workshop that the project is estimated to cost between $69 and $80 million, significantly more than the City’s original estimate of $60 million.

“We were targeting a June 2024 meeting with the state’s project review committee — you have to be either registered through the state to move forward with alt-delivery or get approval,” Collins said.

However, about one week before that meeting, the City received a higher-than-anticipated cost estimate from its engineering and professional services consultant firm, WSP.

“We felt we had to pull the application because we wanted to do some thorough analysis before we move forward,” Collins said.

The project will reconnect Washougal’s Addy Street neighborhood with its downtown and Port of Camas-Washougal areas by reconstructing five intersections along 32nd Street. It will include a new railroad bridge and underpass structure between Main Street/“B” Street and Evergreen Way move forward with the project. I cannot speculate on whether there will be any changes that will impact our grant award,” Scott said. “If something changes with respect to our grant award, we will need to evaluate the situation at that time.”

On Nov. 4, Scott told Washougal City Council members that he is still confident the project will move forward.

“If during the feasibility stage, we land somewhere (and the construction team) comes back and says, ‘Yep, $69 to $80 million is very feasible,’ we’re good to go,” Scott said during the Council’s Nov. 4 workshop. “We feel really confident that that’s going to be the case, but we need to get through that process.”

The City has selected a Progressive Design Build (PDB) process, in which it will select one contractor to design and construct the project. The process will validate the cost estimates and provide “innovative design and construction solutions” to reduce cost and mitigate impacts, according to Collins.

“A huge benefit with PDB as we move forward and secure funding, we know what our ultimate funding is going to be,” Collins said. “You can really value-engineer and find ways to either stay within budget or add scope if for some reason we get additional funds.”

The City sent out request-for-qualification documents to PDB teams in October. It will finalize a shortlist and issue request-for-proposals in December, and select a team in March 2025. The selected team will begin design work in the second quarter of 2025, start construction in the second quarter of 2027, and complete construction by the end of 2029, according to a project timeline on the City’s website.

The first task for the PDB team will be to conduct a “feasibility” phase to determine whether the project is a “go” or “no-go,” according to Robynne Thaxton, the principal of Thaxton Parkinson PLLC, a Woodinville, Washington-based law and consulting firm.

“Once we get through this feasibility study, we will have a deep understanding of, hopefully, a very feasible way forward, and that’s going to be your true ‘go-no go,’” Thaxton said during the Nov. 4 workshop. “(The study is) going to be vetted pretty thoroughly and be brought back to you.”

The team will then conduct a “validation” phase, which will strive to discover material information to create the most accurate good-manufacturing-process and risk assessment plan possible, according to Thaxton.

The PDB team will collaborate with the City to verify or validate the project’s program, scope, schedule and budget, and verify baseline project requirements such as Geotech, existing conditions, permitting, supply chain and other major risks.

“Validation is an incredibly important part of the design build process,” Thaxton said. “At this point in time, we completely verify and validate the program scope, schedule and budget, the baseline project requirements, and the big risks. After we get through validation, you guys are going to see a baseline scope-schedule-budget. Since we’ve gone through this feasibility, it should be, hopefully, not anything different. But as we’re going along, we’re going to be able to take that feasibility study and this baseline validation study to make sure that we start off on the same page, and if we start off on the same page, then we have something to track the future understanding of the costs by and get to the next thing.”

The Camas Planning Commission is diving into the city’s greenhouse gas emissions and seeking ways to mitigate future climate hazards in the region.

During their Oct. 15 meeting, the commissioners heard from Camas Development Director Alan Peters and consultants from WSP and Parametrix about work that has already gone into the City’s “Our Camas 2045” comprehensive planning under new state guidelines that, in 2023, amended Washington state’s Growth Management Act to include a climate goal and mandated that local jurisdictions include climate-change elements — including resiliency in the face of future climate-related weather events — to their comprehensive plans.

“As part of this, the entirety of Clark County conducted a community greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory for their 2025 Comprehensive Plan Update,” Parametrix consultants stated in their executive summary for the Camas Community Greenhouse Gas Inventory presented to the planning commission in October. “This inventory for Camas is part of this larger effort and will help set targets and strategies to reduce GHG emissions and decrease per capita vehicle miles traveled.”

The report noted that Good Company, a division of Parametrix, conducted the greenhouse gas analysis on behalf of Clark County and that the project was funded by Washington’s Climate Commitment Act, a law more than 60% of Washington state voters upheld during the Nov. 5 general election.

Peters told the commissioners that House Bill 1181, enacted by the Washington State Legislature in 2023, requires all Growth Management Act cities to adopt plans to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and to “plan for actions to reduce adverse impacts of climate change to the community.”

“This changes the way we plan our infrastructure, plan our community and respond to disasters,” Peters said.

Greenhouse gas inventory in Camas

The City’s greenhouse gas inventory measured three of the most common greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — as well as other greenhouse gases the consultants described as having a “high global warming potential” such as human-made chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) used in refrigeration and air-conditioning.

The consultants measured the gases in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) and noted that one metric ton of CO2e is the equivalent of one gas-powered passenger vehicle traveling 2,500 miles or 13% the annual energy use in a typical U.S. home. The measurements included not just greenhouse gas emissions happening inside the city of Camas’ boundaries, including natural gas combustion and emissions from cars and trucks, as well as “consumption-based emissions from imported goods and food, fuel, air travel and the purchase of carbon offsets.

“We wanted to make sure you’re accounting for all of the different emissions affecting your community,” Claudia Denton, of Parametrix, told the City’s planning commissioners during their Oct. 15 meeting.

The City’s total emissions in 2022, for a population of 27,250 residents came out to 593,035 metric tons CO2e or 21.8 metric tons CO2e per capita, Denton said, noting that the highest source of local emissions was industrial process and product use at 124,881 metric tons CO2e, while the second, third and fourth highest contributors of local greenhouse gas emissions included building energy, or the energy usage in residential, commercial and industrial buildings and facilities (123,505 metric tons), transportation, including gasoline for passenger vehicles and diesel for freight and bus transit (61,245 metric tons) and solid waste (landfills) and wastewater (7,765 metric tons).

The highest sources of imported emissions included goods production (127,937 metric tons), food production (68,549 metric tons), fuel production (54,344 metric tons) and air travel (24, 810 metric tons).

“Energy used in buildings is Camas’ second largest source of local GHG emissions, accounting for 39% of local emissions,” the consultants noted in their report. “These emissions come from a mix of electricity, natural gas use and other … fuels, and they result in 123,505 (metric tons) CO2e. By energy type, natural gas had the largest impact (47% of total building emissions); closely followed by electricity (47%); and other fuels (6%).”

Transportation, the third-highest source of local emissions, showed that on-road passenger vehicles “were the leading source of local transportation emissions and are responsible for 69% of local emissions.”

Including air travel, Camas’ transportation-related greenhouse emission sources show passenger vehicles account for 49% of all transportation-related emissions, followed by air travel (29%), off-road fuel sales (11%), freight (9%), rail (1%) and electric vehicles (less than 1%).

And when it comes to industrial processes and products use (PPU) emissions, Camas is unique, consultants told the Camas Planning Commission.

Camas has more industrial emissions than an average community, Denton said, adding that what are known as “specialized fugitive gases,” or potent greenhouse gases up to 23,500 times as potent as carbon dioxide, have “contributed to the largest share” of Camas’ industrial emissions.

Denton said Camas officials would, “in terms of global action, be better off having good relationships with these businesses and helping them reduce emissions instead of driving them out of the community.”

The consultants said completing the greenhouse gas emissions study will help Camas officials develop a climate action plan.

“This is the first step,” Denton told the Commission. “Take a look at your emissions, see what the largest source of emissions are and what will fit your community. Those are your next steps.”

Peters said the information is useful to have during the City’s ongoing comprehensive plan update.

“It’s extremely useful information to develop these policies and goals,” Peters said. “The rule is, we have to reduce our emissions and vehicle miles traveled. It’s clear looking at the slides here that individual efforts are going to be a very, very small piece of the pie. The industrial sector is bigger than our transportation impact. We have a big task ahead of us and decisions to make in terms of what these (climate) goals will be.”

Denton added that, though “each person or business or community might feel like you have a very small amount of emissions, collectively that’s what makes up emissions.”

“Look at your sphere of influence,” she advised. “What are your biggest sources of emissions in Camas? Think about what in your household is likely to be the biggest source of emissions … because we all have to do it. We all have to do it together.”

Resiliency and mitigating future climate hazards

Peters and the consultant team also reviewed climate hazards in Camas and began the City’s process of coming up with a climate resiliency plan to prepare for and mitigate the community’s extreme weather risks in the future.

“Even with the climate mitigation and reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, we’ll still have to deal with climate change,” Peters said. “We will still have to respond to climate change. It’s not going to go away overnight.”

The consultants looked at six different climate hazards and ranked them in terms of likely harm for the Camas community.

Extreme heat and extreme precipitation ranked as “high hazards;” while medium-level hazards included landslides, flooding and wildfires and wildfire smoke; and drought was listed as a low-level hazard.

The consultants showed that, under predicted climate change models, Camas will likely have more than 42 days a year when temperatures are over 90 degrees Fahrenheit by 2050, and more than 63 such days by 2080.

“More hot days in the summer will increase the risk of heat-related illness and may disrupt daily activities,” the consultants warned in their report. “Heat is expected to increase demand for water and electricity (for air-conditioning).”

Likewise, with the City’s other “high hazard,” extreme precipitation, the consultants noted that “heavy rains can overwhelm drainage systems, collapse roadways, make driving unsafe, and lead to landslides and floods,” and said “rainstorms may bring strong winds that down trees or powerlines.”

The consultants also noted that, while the area is expected to get less rain in the summertime, it also will likely have more extreme precipitation during other seasons.

The report also noted that “heavy rains cause flooding that may inundate homes, businesses, roads and agricultural areas, leading to costly property damage and health impacts … (and) heavy precipitation increases the risk of landslides by saturating the ground and loosening soil” which could “damage natural areas, buildings and infrastructure in their path,” leaving debris that “may block roads pollute waterways and displace people living nearby.”

The consultants told the Commission that “hotter, drier conditions increase the potential for wildfires, which may burn near populated areas, causing evacuations and property damage,” and noted that smoke from wildfires also poses a health risk as it can “damage human health and disrupt daily activities.”

City officials and community members will need to “consider the vulnerability” of Camas’ various assets — including its schools, health facilities, roads, natural areas, parks, residences, city buildings, farms, grocery stores, banks, historic buildings, utility infrastructure and emergency service facilities and equipment — in light of present and future climate hazards.

“We need to consider these hazards and how they impact Camas,” Denton said. “What are the local assets that are vulnerable to these hazards, and how do we improve their resiliency?”

That is a question the consultants and Peters have been taking out to the community, to city leaders such as the Planning Commission and, eventually, to Camas City Council members.

“We are sharing information about the climate work we’re doing to give folks an opportunity to provide feedback on which alternatives (and) growth scenarios they think support those climate goals,” Peters told the Commission in October.

For more information, visit engagecamas.com/ourcamas2045.