SKAGIT COUNTY, Wash. — Skagit County farmers and county leaders are working to head off proposals by Seattle’s power utility, Seattle City Light, that they said put their world-class farmlands and way of life at risk.
Seattle is in the process of relicensing its three dams on the Skagit River, which generate about 20% of Seattle’s electricity.
At issue is how City Light will mitigate the impacts of their dam operations under terms of a new license, details of which are being negotiated now. Skagit Valley residents, farming groups, and Skagit County Commissioners are highly critical of the utility’s mitigation proposals, which include buying up farmland downstream of their dams to create additional fish habitat.
Leaders in Skagit County say the city has attempted to forge ahead with plans without consultation from the people who will be affected for generations to come.
“We would like them to leave Skagit County to us. Let us make the decisions,” said Peter Browning, Skagit County Commissioner. “Don’t buy our land. Don’t use our land for your selfish needs of mitigation. If we don’t put our foot down, we could very easily keep losing our farmland.”
Other City Light plans include enhancing habitat with off-channel and side-channel projects that could involve diverting the river in some locations.
Third-generation Skagit County resident and farmer Melissa Norris of Rockport said some projects under consideration would put her land at higher risk of flooding.
“A lot of the things they’re choosing to do are very risky and have had very negative effects for those of us who live out here,” Norris said. “It’s very frustrating. It actually makes me very sad, but it also makes me very angry to be honest.”
“We don’t feel listened to,” said Dave Hallock, founder of the citizen group Skagit Upriver Neighbors. “(Seattle’s behavior) feels so arrogant to me, so inappropriate to me. And I felt like it was important to resist what we felt was inappropriate.”
One current project funded in part by City Light, at one point involved plans to build a 300-foot-wide channel to divert part of the Skagit River into a slough near homes and farms.
“Seattle has been like an 800-ton gorilla with a checkbook,” Hallock said. “They’re recklessly throwing money around, doing whatever they want to do, without regard to our rights.”
“This is our community and we deserve to have our voices heard and we deserve to be part of the discussion," Browning said. "If we’re not part of the discussion, that’s not right."
In exchange for generating power from the Skagit, it’s the city’s responsibility to mitigate the impacts caused by the dams – harm to fish, wildlife, and the ecosystem. Under the current license, executed in 1995, Seattle’s commitment was to create and improve fish habitat downstream from the dams. Over the last 25 years, Seattle has spent millions of dollars funding the acquisition of approximately 10,000 acres of Skagit County's “mitigation lands,” meant to improve the habitat for struggling fish.
In a January letter to the federal commission responsible for relicensing the hydroelectric project, Skagit County Commissioners wrote Seattle should be focusing on mitigation efforts at their dams, not miles away downstream. Nearly every other dam operator in the Northwest has invested in fish passage - a way to provide fish with additional habitat to spawn and grow by moving them above and below dams.
Seattle’s project has no fish passage. Their dams cut off 37% of the Skagit River to fish.
“The past 25 years of habitat activity on its own has clearly failed to accomplish (increasing salmon populations),” the Commissioners wrote. “It appears obvious that fish passage has tremendous potential to improve the Skagit fisheries resource.”
Other stakeholders, including two Skagit Valley tribes, for years, have fought to convince City Light to invest in fish passage. Those talks have been fraught with conflict, with the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe and the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe accusing the city of causing “cultural trauma” by operating their dams in a way that kills salmon – the heart and soul of their culture.
Fish populations on the Skagit are in decline. Since the 1995 license was signed, three species have been put on the Endangered Species List: Bull Trout, Steelhead, and Chinook salmon. In 2005, Orcas, who depend on Skagit salmon for survival, were added to the list.
“Our tribal friends and neighbors are requesting that the city, and Seattle City Light, put fish passage through the dams,” said Matt Steinman, a Sedro-Wooley-based farmer during testimony at a Seattle City Council committee meeting on January 11. “This is very important to us, that we focus on fish passage on the Skagit River.”
Steinman was one of a dozen Skagit County residents who testified last month before the committee that oversees Seattle City Light. They urged city leadership to stop planning projects in their county, especially without input from local residents and the government.
“Let’s cut the crap and leave the farmland alone and build fish passage,” said Eiko Vojkovich, owner of Skagit River Ranch in Sedro-Wooley.
“We’ve been excluded by and large from the process and I’m here today to ask the City Council to ensure that our voice is being heard and that we are included in the process,” testified Jenna Friebel, executive director at Skagit County Drainage and Irrigation Districts Consortium.
City Light CEO: 'We are listening'
City Light CEO and General Manager Debra Smith said Skagit County was not at the table for the 1995 license negotiations. This time around she said the county is a valued partner.
“(City Light) didn’t have the opportunity (in 1995)," Smith said. "We didn’t understand some of their impacts. And so, we are listening. Skagit County is very much on my radar. We continue to look for ways to strengthen our relationship with Skagit County Commissioners and we’re always happy to listen to the farmers, and we are listening to the farmers.”
Smith said the utility intends to install fish passage, but after four years of negotiations, there are no official commitments to do so. She said input from stakeholders at confidential negotiations currently underway will help solidify their plans.
“We are in a really hard negotiation," Smith said. "Eco-systems are really tricky. They’re fragile. But I feel encouraged.”
Seattle’s license application must be submitted to the federal regulatory agency in April. Smith said she anticipates all stakeholders will feel like they were heard.
“What I can promise and what I certainly hope is true, is that everyone who is impacted by those decisions have a voice,” Smith said.
Decisions made now will have lasting effects in the Skagit Valley. Seattle’s license will last between 30 and 50 years.
“Everything we do is going to haunt us for 50 years if we don’t get it right," Browning said. "That’s my concern."
“To us it’s not just a project that you’re working on to get completed and then you move on to the next job or next problem,” said Norris, a family farm owner. “To us, this is our lives.”