A new settlement proposal commits Seattle City Light to invest $979 million to build fish passages at its three Skagit River dams among other infrastructure upgrades.
Updated March 12, 2026
At a Skagit County Commissioners meeting Tuesday, prosecuting attorney Will Honea recommended the county approve the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s settlement agreement for the relicensing of Seattle City Light’s three-dam Skagit Hydroelectric Project — with some caveats.
Seattle City Light, a public utility service department of Seattle, is seeking a new 50-year license from FERC. The current license was issued in 1995 and expired in April of last year.
As dam facilities sit on federal land, Skagit County’s approval is not required. Skagit treaty tribes and federal partners have signed the new agreement — the only signatures pending are the City of Seattle and Skagit County, both set to make decisions this month.
The settlement has immense impacts on Skagit County, natural resources, fisheries, farming, flood control and more — and this is the only opportunity for stakeholders to seek changes of any kind from Seattle for the next 50 years.
“My children will be around in 50 years,” Honea said, “but most of us won’t, so this is pretty significant.”
The new settlement proposal commits Seattle City Light to invest $979 million to build fish passages at its three Skagit River dams, something government agencies, nongovernmental organizations and other stakeholders have urged for years despite City Light’s reports claiming it was unnecessary.
Honea wants formal negotiation power for Skagit County. He also wants Seattle City Light to end funding to organizations that oppose fish passage and to reconsider a proposed new road by Ross Reservoir.
Skagit County will hold a public hearing on March 24 at 9:30 a.m. prior to a final decision.
Skagit’s seat
Honea started representing Skagit County in 2020, he said, because the local government felt it “didn’t have a seat at the table.”
“We weren’t even wanted in the room,” he said. “Our ability to get our needs met is frankly based on our ability to partner with tribes, agencies, districts, agriculture and bring together a real Skagit-centered position in this.”
As Seattle City Light’s hydro projects operate under a federal license, the agreement requires federal authorization rather than a local one. Because FERC has exclusive jurisdiction over licensing and relicensing of most non‑federal hydropower projects under the Federal Power Act, it does not need separate legislative approval from local governments.
Seattle dams currently block 37% of the Skagit River, with no fish passage or hatchery. Almost all the river’s floodplain and major habitat restoration projects are within Skagit County, Honea said. Most involve major local government infrastructure and prime Skagit farmland.
The new agreement
The 1,000-page settlement provides an additional level of flood control with storage at Ross Dam and a $190 million pledge for downstream land acquisition and habitat projects.
A fall drawdown of Ross Reservoir creates water storage space before flooding happens, Honea said, which is the most important and cost-effective flood risk mitigation measure in the county.
While the old settlement starts the drawdown in December and provides 120,000 acre-feet, the new settlement proposes starting drawdown in November and boosting the storage to 165,000 acre-feet, with different management regimes depending on the reservoir’s level. [Ed.: Unit updated]
This drawdown was critical during the recent flooding events, Honea said.
“If we did not have this flood storage, Skagit County would not be habitable in the way we understand it,” he said.
The settlement does not include a dam failure warning system. While the dams have an excellent safety record and the risk is low, Honea said a dam failure would be 10 times the magnitude of a 100-year flood.
“It would be worse than Katrina,” he said. “It would be a genuine disaster.”
The largest change in the new agreement by far, however, is the construction of fish passages at each of the three dams.
A long journey for fish
Seattle City Light began construction of the dams in 1919. In 1988, the department funded an Original Impacts Report asserting that salmon never made it past the dam sites because of natural barriers.
The National Marine Fisheries Service, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Parks and Skagit treaty tribes have since concluded that there was never a barrier to salmon before the dams.
Despite National Park Service reports illustrating the need, no fish passage requirement was included in the 1995 FERC license.
In 1999, Skagit Chinook became listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. In 2005, the Skagit River Systems Cooperative and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife published the Skagit Chinook Recovery Plan with Seattle City Light funding and assistance, which largely put the recovery burden on local government infrastructure and Skagit farmland. This plan was not approved by tribes, dike districts, draining districts or Skagit County.
Since the plan was adopted, Skagit Chinook have continued to decline.
When the relicensing process started in 2019, Seattle City Light still asserted no need for a fish passage.
Thus, Honea argues Seattle City Light should not direct projects in Skagit County because its core mission is to keep electricity cheap in Seattle with no obligations to Skagit citizens, farmland and infrastructure.
“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Honea said. “That’s what they’re supposed to do, but we shouldn’t pretend they’re a government here looking out for us.”
When Puget Sound Energy built a fish passage on Baker River after a 2004 settlement agreement, the sockeye run went from near-extinction to 92,000 salmon in 2025.
Entities who have formally asked for fish passage include National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife, Upper Skagit Indian Tribe, Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe, Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, Skagit County, Skagit Drainage and Irrigation Districts Consortium, City of Sedro-Woolley, City of Anacortes, Yakama Indian Nation, Suquamish Tribe, Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland, Purse Seine Vessel Owner’s Association, Puget Sound Harvester’s Association, Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, United Fishermen of Alaska and Wildcat Steelhead Club. [Ed.: additional entities added]
In 2021, Seattle City Light agreed to study the possibility of a fish passage. The new settlement sets up a 15-year process of potential license requirements to install the passages.
Using Puget Sound Energy as a model, the fish passages will likely be a “trap and haul” system, Honea said, which trucks fish above and below the dams.
Honea proposed a caveat for the settlement approval that Seattle City Light needs to not continue to fund or support organizations such as the Skagit Environmental Endowment Commission that undermine fish passage implementation as a matter of good faith as required by the contract.
A November 2023 email with SEEC commissioners shows a City Light consultant encouraging a British Columbia fly-fishing nonprofit to criticize fish passage, among other examples.
Another issue Honea addressed was a plan to develop a new road from Highway 20 to Ross Dam for access to build the fish passage. He argued the road may not be necessary; it raises environmental concerns and could alter the “character” of Ross Reservoir.
The large issue remains: Skagit County still seeks to be formally involved with negotiations. With the proposed settlement, the county must continue to coordinate with entities outside of the FERC process, Honea said.
“We are indispensable to their successful implementation,” he said.
Statements
Chris Townsend, City Light’s director of natural resources and hydro licensing, has been working toward this settlement for nearly a decade.
“This settlement provides a clear and strong framework for how we will operate the Skagit Project for decades to come,” he said in a press release. “It reflects difficult technical work, extensive scientific study and sustained negotiation. Most importantly, it establishes a clear framework for our ongoing partnerships to increase salmon harvest and recovery, enhance flood risk management, steward the river responsibly and provide reliable carbon-free hydropower.”
In a press release from Upper Skagit Tribe, natural resources policy representative and tribal elder Scott Schuyler wrote that this agreement is the culmination of more than seven years of intensive negotiations with the city and licensing partners, beginning with the Skagit Project relicensing kick-off celebration meeting in October 2018, held at the former Upper Skagit village of Daxwálib, now known as Newhalem.
The new agreement provided the tribe with the opportunity to improve the health of the Skagit River and salmon runs and to “finally address the longstanding adverse generational cultural impacts specific to Upper Skagit resulting from the construction and operation of the Skagit Hydroelectric Project for more than a century in our ancestral home referred to as the Valley of the Spirits.”
Swinomish Tribal Community Chair Steve Edwards agreed that while the settlement does not repair all the harm caused, it is a step in the right direction.
“As People of the Salmon, restoring and maintaining the health of the Skagit River will always be our highest priority,” he wrote in a statement. “This is a hard-won, fair and forward-looking agreement that honors our treaty rights, strengthens the ecology of the river and provides a responsible path forward for hydropower generation and salmon recovery.”
Fish and Wildlife Department’s North Puget Sound Regional Director Brendan Brokes outlined the work ahead in a press release.
“This is an important milestone, but it is not the finish line,” he said. “We look forward to continued collaboration with Seattle City Light, our tribal co-managers and local partners to support implementation of this agreement, including significant investments in bringing salmon back to the upper Skagit watershed and restoring habitat for fish and wildlife.”
While Jenna Friebel, executive director of Skagit Drainage and Irrigation Districts, agrees with Honea’s recommendation for county approval, neither the drainage or dike districts signed the plans.
“We cannot support the use of estuary funding without transparent plans such as the salmon recovery plan and local government and tribal cooperation,” said Daryl Hamburg, director of operations at Dike District 17, at the commissioner meeting.
Next steps
After Seattle City Council approves the agreement, it will be reviewed by FERC and go through the federal environmental review process before adoption and implementation.
According to Honea, this could be quick or take as long as two years.
If Skagit County does not approve the agreement, it will not secure the critical flood storage at Ross Reservoir, Honea said. The county will treat the plans as not binding in Skagit local government as it was not involved in negotiations and did not participate in the ecosystem and estuary plans.
“We look forward to Seattle City Light implementing the fish passage in good faith,” said Skagit County Commissioner Peter Browning, reiterating, “in good faith. The financial settlement is commensurate with what other hydro operators in the region have spent. They are still getting a good deal. They are spending less than many, many other dams, and shame on them for that. We should be getting what others do. This settlement is long overdue. It’s truly environmental justice and regional equity, and we deserve it, and anything less than this is absolutely unacceptable.”
— By Sam Fletcher
Also read in Salish Current:
• “Report shows need for greater funding, enforcement to save salmon,” March 2, 2026
• “Browning, Brocksmith face off over fish, farms and dams in Skagit commissioner race,” Oct. 8, 2024
• “Seattle City Light and federal fisheries agency still at loggerheads over fish,” Aug. 19, 2024
• “The Skagit: Seattle City Light and a river to fight over,” Dec. 4, 2023