Many hope it will help ease contentious relations between Tacoma Power and the Skokomish Tribe.

About 60 people – including members of the city-owned utility, contractors and the tribe – stood atop Cushman Dam No. 2 on Friday afternoon to celebrate a quadrupling of water flow into the river, an issue over which the tribe has long sought resolution. In less than an hour, the flow from the dam increased from 60 cubic feet per second to about 240 cubic feet per second.

“This should kick-start the restoration process of the fisheries,” said Pat McCarty, a generation manager with Tacoma Power. “It’s more than just putting water in the river. It’s a celebration of our accomplishments together on restoring the river.”

Tribal policy representative David Herrera was the first to push the button to increase the flow as dozens of people leaned over the edge to watch the blast of water, tinged with brown streaks of sediment, intensify. Four tribal members sang traditional songs. Representatives from Tacoma Power and the tribe spoke from a podium, and visitors snacked on trays of sandwiches and cheese.

Tacoma Power employees and contractors walked the hundreds of steps to the control station at the bottom of the dam for an up-close look. Dozens of people snapped photos with digital cameras. Utility workers passed out golden pins adorned with the project’s logo.

“This has been a huge cultural and economic issue with the tribe,” Herrera said. “We’ve had a long, contentious relationship with the city, but we really are making a lot of progress. We’ve probably made more progress with the city in the last year than in the last 80.”

The first, 275-foot dam of the Cushman Hydroelectric Project was created in 1926. A second, 235-foot dam was erected four years later. Together, they generate enough energy to serve 25,500 homes.

The dams were Tacoma’s first big hydroelectric projects. In addition to providing the city with power, they became the cornerstone of the municipal utility. But the subsequent flooding, Herrera said, engulfed a village on the banks of Lake Cushman and submerged a burial ground. The project dried up the river’s north fork by diverting the water to a powerhouse and affected other parts of the area’s ecosystem in the Skokomish reservation.

The average river flow before the construction of the dams was 847 cubic feet per second, a tribal news release said.

After the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued an operating license to Tacoma Power in 1998, the tribe filed a $5.8 billion lawsuit against Tacoma Power and the federal government. The lawsuit worked its way through the court system but died when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the tribe’s appeal in January 2006.

When the Supreme Court refused to hear the tribe’s appeal, the stay on an operating license was lifted, and the mandate to increase the flow to 240 cubic feet per second went into effect.

The deadline to implement the change was Friday, Tacoma Power spokeswoman Chris Gleason said.

The change in water flow should drop the power output by about one-sixth, but the utility should be able to offset the loss in power, Tacoma Public Utilities Director Bill Gaines said.

The sides have been in mediation to hammer out a compromise on the myriad issues that stem from the use of the river, Gaines said, and the final compromise will almost certainly mean higher rates for customers.

“It’s going to cost money to do this, but we’re also trying to do what’s right for the environment,” McCarty said. “It’s a balance.”

Scott Fontaine: 253-320-4758

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