[Skamania] 🪨 The 1872 Rule Hiding Under Skamania's Mining Fights

[Skamania] 🪨 The 1872 Rule Hiding Under Skamania's Mining Fights

Skamania County has two mining fights going at once. A Canadian company wants to drill toward an open-pit copper mine near Mount St. Helens, and a gravel quarry on the west end could put five hundred truck trips a day onto Highway 14. But underneath the copper fight sits a law from 1872 that almost nobody mentions, and it decides who gets paid. This episode covers recent discussions at the Skamania County Board of Commissioners, Skamania County Community Development, and the long history they're inheriting. In This Episode: * Why hardrock minerals on federal land pay no royalty, to anyone * The Nevada senator who wrote the law, and why it never expired * What happened the last time this promise met a place like ours * Coal, oil and gas pay. Copper doesn't. Why the difference matters to the county budget * Butte, Montana and the bill that outlasted the boom * What three Montana councils actually won from a mining company, and what Skamania could ask for * Which of these two fights Skamania can actually shape, and the July 30 deadline to do it Resources & Links: * Read the full written Dispatch: https://skamaniadispatch.com [https://skamaniadispatch.com/] * Comment on the Storedahl Quarry draft EIS (due July 30): https://www.skamaniacounty.org/departments-offices/community-development/storedahl-quarry [https://www.skamaniacounty.org/departments-offices/community-development/storedahl-quarry] * The Stillwater Good Neighbor Agreement (Northern Plains Resource Council): https://northernplains.org/good-neighbor-agreement/ [https://northernplains.org/good-neighbor-agreement/] * Montana's Hard Rock Mining Impact Board, on making mines pay local government costs: https://comdev.mt.gov/Programs-and-Boards/Hard-Rock-Mining-Impact-Board/Hard-Rock-Impact-Plan-Information [https://comdev.mt.gov/Programs-and-Boards/Hard-Rock-Mining-Impact-Board/Hard-Rock-Impact-Plan-Information] * Prior coverage, "A Mine, a Closed School, and a County Locked in a Box": https://skamania-dispatch.ghost.io/a-mine-a-closed-school-and-a-county-locked-in-a-box-skaman/ [https://skamania-dispatch.ghost.io/a-mine-a-closed-school-and-a-county-locked-in-a-box-skaman/] * The law itself, 30 U.S.C. §22 (Cornell Legal Information Institute): https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/30/22 [https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/30/22] * GAO on hardrock royalties: https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-08-849r [https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-08-849r] * Interior's 2025 Critical Minerals List: https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/interior-department-releases-final-2025-list-critical-minerals [https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/interior-department-releases-final-2025-list-critical-minerals] * National Archives, Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868: https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals/1868.html [https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals/1868.html] * EPA, Silver Bow Creek / Butte Area Superfund site: https://www.epa.gov/butte/background [https://www.epa.gov/butte/background] * Failed reforms to outdated hardrock mining law https://www.hcn.org/articles/south-mining-2-democrats-kill-chances-of-reforming-the-outdated-hardrock-mining-law/ [https://www.hcn.org/articles/south-mining-2-democrats-kill-chances-of-reforming-the-outdated-hardrock-mining-law/] Stay Connected with the Gorge The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org. To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge [https://www.google.com/search?q=https://facebook.com/OpenGorge].

[Klickitat] 🖥 Data Centers Come Knocking - Klickitat BOCC 6/30 - 7/21

Four summer meetings of the Klickitat County Board of County Commissioners, in one sitting. The Board maps out how a data center would actually get approved, weighs shrinking where solar can be built, gets its first real short-term-rental numbers, bets on a City of Seattle trash contract, and redraws the map of which rural roads get a painted safety line. Plus fire season, a "hiring freeze" fight, and a mid-year budget check. In This Episode * The county's new data-center permitting roadmap, and what "community benefit" could mean * A Planning Commission move to shrink the county's solar zone * The first hard short-term-rental data: 143 properties, and sixteen rented illegally * The road-striping decision: Snowden, Bickleton, and Canyon Road for just under thirty-eight thousand dollars * Republic Services, the Roosevelt landfill, and a Seattle-sized bid * The "hiring freeze" that commissioners say is really "a conversation," and a calm mid-year budget report * A hard fire weekend, new radio agreements, and a new 911 coordinator * A shrinking public-health contract, a childcare workshop, and Dallesport wastewater rates Resources & Links * Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.com * Klickitat County agendas, Zoom link, and meeting recordings: klickitatcounty.org * Submit written comment: bocc@klickitatcounty.org * Open Gorge's Public Benefit Lab (mitigations and community-benefit options for data centers, battery storage, solar, wind, and transmission): opengorge.org/public-benefit-lab [https://opengorge.org/public-benefit-lab] Stay Connected with the Gorge The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org. To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge [https://www.google.com/search?q=https://facebook.com/OpenGorge].

[All-Gorge] ⚖️ New Rules & a Fire-Year Reckoning - Gorge Commission 6/18 - 7/14

The Columbia River Gorge Commission just rewrote its own open-government rulebook, over a protest from Friends of the Columbia Gorge and a lone no vote. This episode covers what the new rules actually give you, the one-year Burdoin fire rebuild scorecard, a commissioner's on-the-record dissent about tribal voice and two energy projects, and a new Gorge spider with a Sahaptin name. In This Episode * The Commission adopts its first full rules overhaul in decades: what changed for records requests, meeting notice, and executive sessions * Friends of the Columbia Gorge's notice objection, and why the Commission voted anyway * Disaster-recovery rules become ordinance: the no-application RV process and the rebuild size ladder * One year after Burdoin: who has rebuilt, who is still waiting * Commissioner Pah-tu Pitt's dissent on Pushpum and Cascade Renewable silence, and a commissioner-pay equity proposal * A farewell to Barbara Bailey, and a live fact-check on the resolution * Gorge 2030, the 40th anniversary, and the $80,000 farm-income test Resources & Links * Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.com * Gorge Commission agendas, Zoom links, and the new rulemaking notice list: gorgecommission.org * Next full Commission meeting: September 8, 2026 * Budget deadlines: Oregon July 31, Washington September 15 * Disclosure: during the Executive Director's report, Commissioner Fowler praised a public comment on accessory dwelling units "from Kate Bertash," saying she'd "done a spectacular job of setting the stage of where we are in the Gorge right now." That comment, a regional ADU policy brief [https://gorgecommission.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Public-Comment-Kate-Bertash-2026.07.13.pdf], was submitted by the author of the Skamania Dispatch, who hosts this podcast and maintains the Open Gorge Public Meetings Archive. It is independent analysis, speaks for no government, and you can read it in the meeting record [https://gorgecommission.org/meeting/june-2026-monthly-crgc-meeting-7-8-2026/]. Stay Connected with the Gorge The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org. To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge [https://www.google.com/search?q=https://facebook.com/OpenGorge].

[All-Gorge] 🍽️ Splitting the Dinner Check - a Property Tax Explainer

Every spring, reassessment notices land in mailboxes across Skamania and Klickitat, and every spring they get misread as a bill. This episode explains what your assessment actually is: your share of a fixed check, capped by Washington's one percent levy limit, the same in both counties. We use real Home Valley numbers to show why your bill can climb while the county still runs short, and why the two facts do not cancel out. In this episode * The dinner-check idea: why your assessed value is a seat at the table, not a bill * What a $100,000 reassessment really does to your bill, and to the county's budget * The one part that surprises everyone: your bigger share is your neighbors' smaller share * The 1% cap versus the roughly 5% real cost of running a county (Skamania and Klickitat both) * The December decision each Board of Commissioners makes (Skamania skipped it once; Klickitat took it every year) * The two ways a county's bill can actually grow, and why one wears everyone out * Why this is on ballots across the country this November Resources & Links * Read the full written explainer at skamaniadispatch.com [https://skamaniadispatch.com] * Skamania [https://www.skamaniacounty.org/departments-offices/assessment-and-gis/levy-reports] and Klickitat [https://klickitatcounty.gov/197/Levy-Rates-Reports ] County Assessor certified levy sheets (public record) * Washington Department of Revenue: how the 1% property tax levy limit works [https://dor.wa.gov/forms-publications/publications-subject/tax-topics/property-tax-how-1-property-tax-levy-limit-works] * Washington State Auditor filings [https://portal.sao.wa.gov/FIT/] (county operating costs) Stay Connected with the Gorge The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org. To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge [https://www.google.com/search?q=https://facebook.com/OpenGorge].

[Klickitat] 🚔 Life After Sheriff Songer - Klickitat Primary Round-Up

Klickitat County is picking a new sheriff for the first time in a decade. Longtime Sheriff Bob Songer is retiring, and three career lawmen (John Bruce, Tony Warren, and Dwayne Matulovich) are running to replace him. We walk through two candidate forums, dig into the campaign-finance filings (including who the outgoing sheriff is funding), and cover the three-way County Commission race and the quiet PUD contest almost nobody is watching. In this episode: * Why the sheriff's seat is suddenly open, and how the three candidates differ on the posse, Flock cameras, and "constitutional sheriff" politics * Follow the money: who is raising what, who is self-funding, and the out-of-state donors * How the retiring sheriff is helping fund both a successor and a commissioner candidate * The County Commission, District 2 race and the Dallesport data-center split * The contested PUD race with no forum, and the rest of the ballot * How and when to vote in the August 4 primary Resources & links: * Read the full written round-up at skamaniadispatch.com * Candidate sites: johnbruceforsheriff.com · tonywarrenforsheriff.com · dwaynematulovich4sheriff.com * Campaign-finance data: Washington Public Disclosure Commission (pdc.wa.gov) * Sheriff retirement and the new posse law: OPB * Watch the League of Women Voters of Klickitat-Skamania sheriff forum on their Facebook and YouTube pages [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlBRgpsy98] * Register to vote and check your ballot: klickitatcounty.gov Stay Connected with the Gorge The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org. To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge [https://www.google.com/search?q=https://facebook.com/OpenGorge].