SEATTLE — Part of the controversial Electron Dam must be removed from the Puyallup River following a district court ruling in Seattle on Friday.
The Puyallup Tribe sued Electron Hydro, the company that operated the dam, after it polluted the river with rubber sports turf material, claiming it repeatedly violated the Endangered Species Act. Electron Hydro eventually constructed a "temporary" rock dam, which the court ruled harmed steelhead trout, Chinook salmon and bull trout.
The court ruling means water will be able to flow naturally for the first time in almost 100 years, the attorneys of the tribe said in a press release.
“From the time the rock dam was proposed in 2020, the Tribe and its biologists made it clear that the structure would harm fish and prevent successful upstream migration for salmon to spawn,” said the Puyallup Tribal Council after the ruling. “Year after year, the Tribe has demanded it be removed to allow for spawning migration. Year after year the operators and regulators refused to do the right thing and remove the illegal structure that was harming salmon. For years, Electron Hydro has followed its devastating act of polluting the water with turf with further harm to fish by preventing their upstream migration. We are grateful the court agreed with our repeated calls for its removal because the dam violated the Endangered Species Act. The Tribe will work closely with agencies to be sure this happens as soon as possible. It is a good day for salmon, even if it took years to get to this result.”
The lawsuit was filed in 2020, and the company was held criminally liable in 2023. Electron Hydro and Chief Operating Officer Thom Fischer pleaded guilty in February 2023 to a gross misdemeanor violation of operating an unlawful hydraulic project.
On May 5 of last year, a Pierce County Superior Court judge sentenced Electron Hydro to pay $250,000 in penalties, the maximum corporate financial penalty. Fischer also was ordered to pay $5,000, the individual maximum. As part of the sentence, Electron Hydro was also expected to pay $745,000 to the Puyallup Tribal Fisheries to help restore the Puyallup River.
Per court documents, the company said the rock wall, which was constructed in 2020 and Electron Hydro hoped would be removed in 2021, is still in place with only minor modifications.
The court ordered Electron Hydro to remove the center portion of the rock dam during the summer 2024 in water work season. The deadline for completion is Sept. 15, 2024.
Lisa Anderson, the tribe's environmental attorney, said they're "obviously pretty pleased that fish passage will be reestablished and fish will be moving up into the upper Puyallup watershed into habitat critical to spawning and survival."
Because the deadline for the work until September, steelhead migrating now will be blocked. But Anderson said future generations will be able to move upstream.