By Pepper Fisher
OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK – We have a follow-up to our story from last week where we asked, “Why has there been no action on getting Olympic Hot Springs Road reopened in Olympic National Park?”
After we published our story, we heard from Park Superintendent Sula Jacobs, who apologized for not returning our emails and answered our follow-up questions about where we are in the process of getting the road opened.
The upshot is, National Park Service (NPS) officials have essentially started the process over after determining that they were “unable to address all of the concerns regarding potential significant impacts on fisheries resources from the preferred alternative.”
That preferred alternative was to reroute 1 mile of the road out of the floodplain, but Jacobs says the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and other stakeholders asked Park officials “to look into further studies regarding fisheries and Endangered Species Act bird species.” She said, “There have been internal NPS meetings at the park…to determine how best to go forward and whether an Environmental Assessment was still the appropriate pathway. In addition, there were discussions whether further data or studies needed to be conducted regarding the potential for significant impacts.”
We asked her about the Tribe’s preferred alternative, which is to build an elevated causeway over the flood plain, and Jacobs said, “The causeway alternative was included and fully analyzed in the 2019 Draft EA”. In that chapter, the project is described as 1,400 foot long concrete bridge, but it was not selected as the preferred alternative. That could change, though. Jacobs said, “The park is looking to restart a planning process to look at the science currently happening, especially [because of] the changes in the river since the plan was first published close to 4 years ago. In that process, the park will be revisiting the alternatives. The park will also be involving the public in the process.”
(NPS photo: Superintendent Sula Jacobs)