Columbia County seeks consultant for climate change, resiliency planning

Columbia County is seeking a consultant to determine how climate change will impact the area — and how the county, city of Dayton and town of Starbuck will respond.

The information will become part of the local governments’ comprehensive plan periodic updates, which must be completed by June 30, 2027.

Under a 2023 state law that added “climate change and resiliency” to the state’s planning goals, local governments must include elements of both in their comprehensive plans.

“We have to develop an element analyzing our current plans and policies and determining what we can anticipate as far as climate change goes, how it’s going to impact us and how we’re going to respond to that,” county Planning Manager Dena Martin told the county commissioners at their Monday, June 7, meeting.

The Washington State Legislature awarded Columbia County $300,000, and Dayton and Starbuck $100,000 each, through the state Department of Commerce for the climate change work. The county will receive and administer the pooled grant funds for each jurisdiction.

The county’s planning and building department put out a request for qualifications earlier this month. The deadline for RFQ submissions is Friday, Aug. 8.

In addition to drafting the climate change and resiliency material, the consultant will help “county, city and town staff with tasks such as organizing and facilitating public meetings, preparing informational materials for the public, city councils and Board of County Commissioners,” the RFQ states.

It’s not yet known whether the jurisdictions’ comprehensive plans will feature the same climate change element and resiliency sub-element or different ones, Martin said in an interview. “But there should be a lot of overlap between the city and the county and Starbuck.”

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Erick Bengel is a Murrow News Fellow at the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin whose beat focuses on rural civic affairs. He can be reached at ebengel@wwub.com or 509-526-8313.

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