Take Action

Where to start

If you do one thing, sign up for updates. We’ll alert you when the SEPA comment window opens, when new permits are filed, and when community meetings are scheduled.

After that, here’s the sequence:

  1. Now: Write to the institutions below. Push them to prepare for the SEPA process and advocate for safety conditions. This is the groundwork.
  2. When Jupiter refiles: A 14-day State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) comment window opens. This is the decisive moment. If an issue isn’t raised during that window, it cannot be raised later in an appeal. Read our SEPA comment guide now so you’re ready.

You don’t need to contact everyone. Pick the one or two that matter most to you and write a short, specific email. The bullet points below give you exactly what to ask.

What you can do now

Write to Puget Sound Energy

PSE selected this project and this developer. Their own 2021 siting study screened all 382 substations and identified 15 recommended locations for energy storage. Mt. Si was not one of them. It didn’t even make the initial cut of 36 stations that received detailed analysis. The study’s criteria explicitly flag residential areas, schools, and hospitals as making a location less desirable. Four years later, PSE signed a tolling agreement for a 130 MW facility at the location their own consultant rejected.

PSE originally filed the tolling agreement with the UTC redacted in its entirety, and has sued the UTC to prevent further disclosure. UTC Commission Staff criticized PSE’s redaction pattern in an earlier procurement, writing that some information PSE redacted “does not appear to Staff to be commercially sensitive.”

Email: communityengagement@pse.com

Ask them:

Write to the Snoqualmie City Council

The site is in unincorporated King County, so the City of Snoqualmie has no permitting authority today. But the city has real leverage. It controls the franchise agreement with PSE. It is a named party to the development agreements that restrict what the adjacent PSE corridor parcels can be used for. Neither potential construction access route to the project site was designed for industrial traffic, and both have legal constraints the city can enforce. The city can also formally participate in the SEPA review.

Email: councilmembers@snoqualmiewa.gov

Ask them to:

Write to the Snoqualmie Valley School District

Cascade View Elementary is approximately half a mile from the proposed facility. School bus routes on Snoqualmie Parkway pass within 0.1 miles. PSE’s own siting study flagged schools as making a location less desirable for energy storage. The district has standing to comment on impacts to student safety during the SEPA review.

Email Superintendent Dan Schlotfeldt: schlotfeldtd@svsd410.org

Email the school board: svsdinfo@svsd410.org

Ask them to:

Write to Snoqualmie Valley Hospital

Snoqualmie Valley Hospital is the closest emergency facility to the project site. Hydrogen fluoride exposure causes deep tissue burns and pulmonary edema that require specialized treatment. The hospital would receive casualties from an HF release event.

Email Ken Rudberg (Director of Quality, Risk & Compliance): kenr@snoqualmiehospital.org

Ask them to:

If you’re on a private well

The project site is surrounded by dozens of private domestic wells, with the highest concentration in the unincorporated residential area downhill to the southwest (31 water wells in that quarter section alone). The City of Snoqualmie also draws its municipal water from valley groundwater wells. Contaminated firefighting runoff from a lithium-ion battery fire (heavy metals, fluoride compounds, electrolyte) could migrate through soil to groundwater. No hydrogeologic assessment has been submitted for this project.

If you’re on a private well near the project site, you have a direct stake in the SEPA review. Your comment about groundwater risk carries weight that a general safety concern does not. See our groundwater analysis for the data, including well locations, depth ranges, and the Sumner precedent where a public water well on a BESS project parcel triggered the strongest groundwater conditions in any Washington BESS project.

When the SEPA comment window opens, submit a comment identifying your well and asking King County to require a hydrogeologic assessment before issuing a development permit.

Write to local fire agencies

Three fire agencies cover this area. Jupiter Power has confirmed it is coordinating with all three on emergency response planning. These agencies can formally participate in the SEPA process and advocate for safety conditions.

King County Fire Marshal Eric Urban: eric.urban@kingcounty.gov

Eastside Fire & Rescue Chief Will Aho: waho@esf-r.org

City of Snoqualmie Fire Department Chief Mike Bailey: mbailey@snoqualmiewa.gov

Ask them to:

When the SEPA comment window opens

Submit a SEPA comment

When Jupiter Power refiles their permit, King County will open a 14-day public comment window. The comments submitted during that period form the legal record. If an issue isn’t raised during SEPA comments, it cannot be raised later in an appeal. We’ll send an alert when the window opens.

Read our guide on how to write an effective SEPA comment. It covers the legal standard, the checklist elements relevant to this project, what makes a comment effective, and what to avoid. You don’t need to cover everything. One well-supported comment on a single topic is more valuable than a vague letter touching all of them. Start reading now so you’re ready the day the window opens.

Push the institutions above to submit formal comments

If you’ve already written to the city council, school district, or fire agencies, follow up during the SEPA window and ask if they plan to submit a formal comment. Institutional comments on the record carry more weight than individual letters. The more agencies that participate, the stronger the case for meaningful permit conditions.

Get informed

Understanding the permitting process, the technology, the fire risk, the site and environment, and what we’re asking for makes your voice more effective when the time comes.