There were likely fish killed at a Pierce County dam last summer, federal agency says
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service alleged an Orting hydropower dam killed fish while draining a forebay last summer.
The agency’s December letter, obtained by The Puyallup Herald, said there were “probable mortalities” of fish while Electron Hydro drained a forebay — or a man-made pond meant to collect fish — in July.
Electron Hydro responded to the agency Feb. 17 with a report by a consultant and ecologist, Jeff Barrett with Paradox Natural Resources.
The response acknowledged shortcomings by the dam operator, explained why there were violations and said the number of fish mortalities could not be determined.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service oversees the protection of bull trout, a threatened species. Because they are protected, the federal agency issued Electron Hydro a permit to handle the fish. The USFW letter said the hydropower company’s forebay draining violated the permit by harming bull trout and not being prepared in staff or equipment to move the fish downstream.
The federal agency suspended the permit due to the violations in the letter.
Electron Hydro diverts water from the Puyallup River into a wooden flume that travels down to the dam to create hydropower.
Some fish continue down the Puyallup River and others are diverted with the water into the flume. There is nothing to deter fish from entering the flume, CEO Thom Fischer said. If fish get into the flume, there is a forebay to prevent them from heading to the powerhouse, where the fish would die in the turbines.
Fischer told The Puyallup Herald the ultimate plan is to add a “fish screen” at the entrance of the flume, preventing any fish from getting into the flume and hydropower plant.
Fischer said fish are removed from the forebay twice a week and driven by truck downstream of the powerhouse, where they are placed back in the river. On July 29, 2020, crews drained the forebay to prepare for installation of the fish screen and excavate sentiment to deepen it.
Among other concerns, the federal agency said there was an insufficient number of transport vehicles and trained personnel provided on site to handle a worst-case scenario that day.
The dam company said staff was not able to get the necessary equipment for a third truck, and there were scheduling conflicts with some of the expected trained personnel.
Electron Hydro’s response also mentioned that road closures delayed the two fish transport trucks for up to 45 minutes.
“Electron Hydro provided substantial equipment and staffing for the fish recovery, but in hindsight additional equipment, transport vehicles, and fish biologists would have aided fish capture and processing during the Fish Recovery,” the report said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also said that during the draining, a healthy environment was not provided for bull trout held in tanks.
Electron Hydro’s response said water temperatures were higher than normal already stressing the fish, but the company could have started the effort earlier in the day.
The federal agency also said many bull trout mortalities or likely mortalities were released directly back into the river and not retained and preserved, violating the permit.
Electron Hydro’s response said no documentation of the fishes’ condition upon release was made. Staff were directed to collect more fish from the forebay as quickly as possible, rather than delaying at the river to assess fish condition.
“Accordingly, there are no data regarding any additional mortalities or probable mortalities among fish transported to the release point,” the report said.
A Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife report from Aug. 6 said there was a “large fish kill,” including chinook salmon, winter steelhead, bull trout, coho salmon, rainbow trout, cutthroat trout and sculpin.
“The total number of fish lost during this activity is unknown, but my best educated guess would be in the thousands as we were only able to recover a small portion of the total,” the state agency said in its report. “Given the large areas that were never fished out, the number recovered was minimal at best.”
In data provided by Electron Hydro, an estimated 12,542 fish were counted in the forebay from Aug. 1, 2019 to July 27, 2020. Electron Hydro data said a total of 131 fish died in the drain, seven of which were bull trout. A total of 526 fish were recorded — alive and dead —when the forebay was drained, the company data said.
Fischer said the hydropower dam company has already made three changes: dug a deeper forebay to keep the water cooler for longer, doubled the width of the flume exit into the forebay to decrease the velocity of water streaming in, and hired the consultant who wrote the response to USFW’s letter to oversee the fish program.
“We are upping our game with regard to putting fish at par with us generating renewable energy,” Fischer said.
The Puyallup Tribe included the forebay incident in a lawsuit against Electron Hydro, claiming the company violated the Endangered Species Act.
“In July 2020, a planned outage of the Electron facility stranded, suffocated and pulverized thousands of adults and juvenile fish,” a press release announcing the lawsuit said. “This dam has been killing fish for decades. The reckless killing of fish in the forebay this summer in spite of our efforts to warn and guide them to reduce the fish kill and then polluting this sacred river with crumb rubber was the last straw.”
The Puyallup Tribe did not respond to Electron Hydro’s responses to the incident, and referred further comment to the lawsuit.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife did not respond to questions regarding its letter of violations or Electron Hydro’s response.
Another incident a few days after the forebay draining has many, including Pierce County and the Puyallup Tribe, calling for the closure of Electron Hydro. While working on the diversion system, crews placed a layer of field turf in the bed of the river. Some of that turf escaped and flowed downstream.
The U.S Justice Department filed a lawsuit in November against Electron Hydro for polluting the river with turf pellets and plastic yarn and for violating its work permits.
This story was originally published March 1, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
