Seattle City Light is set to spend millions on fish passage, habitat restoration and compensation to tribes in the coming decades after the city’s leaders greenlit a massive agreement concerning its dams on the upper Skagit River on Tuesday, April 7.
Tribes, Skagit County and state and federal agencies have already approved the settlement. It will support the Seattle public utility’s effort to get a new 50-year license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for Ross, Diablo and Gorge dams, which power about 20% of the Seattle area. City Light’s license application process is expected to take years.
Mistrust of Seattle City Light runs deep in Skagit County, where advocates for agricultural interests fear the utility will use habitat funding to take farmland out of production. Leaders of diking and drainage district groups in the county have declined to sign for that reason.
Since 2019, the utility has been hashing out issues related to the relicensing with stakeholders, including tribes and government agencies. The agreement binds City Light to spending up to $979 million on fish passage efforts and at least $150 million on salmon habitat restoration, both of which have been points of contention.
Separate agreements with the Upper Skagit, Swinomish and Sauk-Suiattle tribes commit the utility to spending an additional $350 million on direct financial compensation and other benefits such as employment opportunities.
In a previous interview, Upper Skagit Indian Tribe policy representative Scott Schuyler stressed that the agreement is a compromise. “In a perfect world, we wouldn’t dam our rivers,” said Schuyler, who added the tribe’s belief system says the upper Skagit Valley “is where we came from.”
In a news release on Tuesday, City Light wrote the agreement’s approval “is a major step forward in securing a new operating license for one of the city of Seattle’s most important sources of renewable energy.”
Sophia Gates, covering rural Whatcom and Skagit counties for Cascadida Daily News, is with the Washington State Murrow Fellowships, a local news program supported by state legislators.
