The Seattle Post Intelligencer
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Puget Sound Energy threatened with suit for stranding salmon

By ROBERT McCLURE

Friday, January 12, 2001

Environmentalists charged yesterday that Puget Sound Energy repeatedly stranded salmon and their eggs without water despite warnings from government biologists.

On one occasion, the utility explained its actions as "a business decision," records show.

Puget Sound Energy blamed the weather and said federal policies and actions by other utilities were contributing factors.

Eight environmental groups led by Washington Trout yesterday notified PSE that they would use new authority under the Endangered Species Act to sue if the utility again strands protected fish or their eggs.

"We're not saying they can never do maintenance," said John Arum, a lawyer for the environmentalists. "We're saying they need to do it in a way that doesn't strand salmon."

The activists say that last September the utility was working on its Lake Tapps reservoir near Tacoma and diverted water into the White River, increasing the flow above its usual level. Salmon and bull trout -- protected under the Endangered Species Act -- swam into areas where they were later trapped in small pools when water levels dropped.

And they said the utility reduced the flow from its Baker River dam in Skagit County by twentyfold on Thanksgiving Day, exposing hundreds or perhaps thousands of salmon nests downstream in the Skagit River, reducing the chances of a healthy hatch there.

PSE has harmed fish in those locations before, the activists charged. They said state, tribal and federal officials complained in 1997 of similarly sudden "downramping" of Baker River flows, and that Lake Tapps and White River operations have "long been of concern" to the government.

The state Department of Ecology issued a notice of violation to the utility last month concerning the Baker River flow reduction and asked the company to explain its actions.

A report by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife regarding September's White River flow fluctuations says state biologists asked PSE to reschedule maintenance when fish arrived earlier than expected.

On Sept. 7, a representative of the utility told a state wildlife official the project's timing "was a business decision" and that the state "has put PSE in a difficult position," state records say. The utility went ahead with the work the following day.

PSE spokesman Roger Thompson said the utility has been unfairly blamed for low river flows, which he attributed to lack of rain.

"Puget Sound Energy has never operated its hydroelectric projects in a vacuum with callous disregard for the effects that our operations are going to have on fish and wildlife," Thompson said.

He said federal agencies asked that annual maintenance be done at Lake Tapps in late summer, when few salmon spawn. But last year, state biologists noticed the fish were showing up early.

The utility, records show, wanted the Army Corps of Engineers to help rescue the fish by releasing water from the Mud Mountain dam upstream from Lake Tapps. But Corps policies would not allow that.

"It's not as if we had our feet in concrete and said, 'no, we're not going to change this,'" Thompson said. "It was all happening on very short notice from the state."

He said the situation was aggravated by a Tacoma Public Utilities water line that crosses the White River. High water flowing over it scoured holes where fish were trapped when water levels fell, he said.

The Thanksgiving cutback on the Baker River, Thompson said, was necessary because energy use then was low, as was the reservoir level. The utility needed to conserve water for coming cold weather and increased demand, Thompson said.

The contribution Puget Energy's water could have made was tiny compared to the flow of the Skagit, he said, and is dwarfed by that of Seattle City Light's dams farther up the river.

"The crux of this is we're going through a season when Mother Nature is not being very kind and is not providing the flows we would normally be having," Thompson said.