image: The Ross Dam towers over Riprap Creek. The dam is one of three along the Skagit River operated by Seattle City Light. A complicated relicensing process for the dams has been underway since 2019. An end is in sight, with just a few entities left that need consider the proposed agreement. (Finn Wendt/Cascadia Daily News)
by Sophia Gates, Cascadia Daily News
Years of negotiations over Seattle City Light’s relicensing of three dams on the upper Skagit River appear to be nearing the finish line, with a pending historic agreement that includes fish passage for three upper-river dams.
Treaty tribes and state and federal agencies have already approved a proposed agreement, which would commit Seattle’s public utility to spending up to $979 million on fish passage and $200 million on salmon habitat and water quality monitoring. Electricity generated by the dams powers about 20% of Seattle.
The extent to which City Light will fund fish passage at the Skagit River dams has been a major sticking point in negotiations. Skagit County attorney Will Honea has strongly advocated for the utility to take more responsibility for fish passage and to let local governments and tribes take the lead in habitat restoration.
The nearly-billion-dollar commitment to fish passage in the proposed agreement represents a victory on that front.
Skagit County Commissioner Peter Browning, in an emailed statement, said county officials “see this settlement as long-overdue environmental justice and regional equity.”
Neither the City of Seattle nor Skagit County have signed the settlement yet. The proposed agreement will be passed on to Seattle City Council next week, Mayor Katie B. Wilson’s office said in a statement. Skagit commissioners will hold a hearing on the agreement at 9 a.m. Tuesday, March 10, and are expected to make a decision, county spokesperson Jenn Rogers confirmed in an email.
The Skagit County Dike and Drainage Flood Control Partnership and the North Cascades Institute also have yet to sign.
Scott Schuyler, policy representative for the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe, called the relicensing “the most significant salmon restoration action in the last 50 years on the Skagit” in a previous interview.
A City Light info sheet said the agreement “reflects our shared responsibility for taking care of this uniquely diverse natural area.”
The Skagit River Hydroelectric Project includes the Ross, Diablo and Gorge dams, more than 100 miles of power lines and two company towns, Newhalem and Diablo, according to a settlement document.
“The City of Seattle was basically built on the energy produced by the Skagit project,” said Chris Townsend, director of natural resources and hydro licensing for City Light, at a press briefing on Thursday, March 5.
Last April, the 30-year license issued by the Federal Regulatory Commission (FERC) for the project expired. Since 2019, the utility has been hashing out issues related to the relicensing with stakeholders, including tribes and government agencies.
Skagit County was initially excluded from that process, but finally gained a seat at the negotiating table in 2024.
The settlement agreement under discussion is not a required part of the utility’s application for a new license from the federal commission, which it submitted in 2023. The documents under consideration now would be sent to the commission as a supplement to that application, to streamline the approval process.
City Light expects to receive its new license around 2030.
The county’s relationship with City Light has long been contentious. Officials have voiced fears in the past that the utility will use eminent domain to take over farmland under the guise of habitat restoration on the lower river.
Townsend said at the press briefing the utility had committed to limiting its habitat restoration work to voluntary acquisition.
“We do not intend to use any powers of eminent domain,” he said. “We don’t believe we have that power.”
City Light has been told it hasn’t given anything back to the Skagit watershed in exchange for the power it’s extracted, Townsend said. This agreement “will be a significant return of value to the people who live and depend on the Skagit River.”
A Board of Skagit County Commissioners hearing on the agreement will be at 9 a.m. Tuesday, March 10, at 1800 Continental Pl. in Mount Vernon.
Sophia Gates covers rural Whatcom and Skagit counties. She is a Washington State Murrow Fellow whose work is underwritten by taxpayers and available outside CDN's paywall. Reach her at
Republished with permission. Read the original article,