Parents, students urge Snoqualmie Valley board to press for school-focused review of proposed Cascadia Ridge battery facility

Public commenters at the March 26 Snoqualmie Valley School District board meeting urged the district to press local authorities and the project applicant for school-focused briefings and planning before the Cascadia Ridge battery energy storage project advances.

Hannah Pral, a parent and member of Snoqualmie Neighbors for Responsible Energy Development, told the board the facility — which she said is proposed about two miles from Mount Sai High School — would be “a large industrial facility approximately 2 miles away from the high school” and consists of “hundreds of battery units that store and discharge electricity to the regional grid,” not a district power source.

Rajree Jadeta, also speaking for the neighborhood group, warned of battery failure modes and emergency-response implications, saying thermal runaway can release gases “like hydrogen fluoride,” that documented incidents can last days and that in some cases air-quality impacts “can last for at least 5 mile radius.” She said shelter-in-place, rather than evacuation, is often the primary protective action and raised concerns about the district’s ability to seal classrooms and protect students for prolonged periods.

Danielle Wallace, representing the neighbors group and a parent in the district, said valley geography and limited evacuation routes make large-scale incidents especially difficult to manage: “If something happens during the school day, what is the plan? … How is that coordinated safely and efficiently given the number of students, available buses, available drivers, and surrounding traffic?” She added that the community currently lacks “a site specific school integrated plan that answers these questions.”

Aria, a sixth-grader at Chief Cana Middle School, focused on environmental and community impacts, saying construction would remove about 45 acres of trees and could displace wildlife into neighborhoods and school playgrounds.

Melody Correa, PTSA president at Cascade View Elementary and a steering-committee member of the neighbors group, asked the board to take specific next steps: to request a dedicated briefing from King County emergency management and the project applicant that focuses on school impacts, emergency response protocols and how decisions would be communicated to schools in real time, and to ensure the district has a formal role in the county’s environmental review.

Chair (speaker 3) reminded the room that public comment is a listening period and that the board’s practice is not to respond during comment. The board acknowledged receiving two written public comments (to be attached to the minutes) and accepted five oral comments at the meeting; no formal board action on the project was taken that night.

What the speakers asked for and what the board can do next: commenters requested school-specific briefings from King County and the applicant, inclusion of district staff in permitting conversations, and development of school-integrated emergency plans that account for shelter-in-place duration, bus availability and valley evacuation constraints. The board did not vote on or direct staff to take a specific action on the project during the meeting.