‘Monumental decision.’ Controversial dam on Puyallup River suffers another legal setback
A hydroelectric dam operator that polluted the Puyallup River in 2020 must remove a portion of a temporary rock dam/spillway constructed after the incident because it poses a danger to fish swimming upstream, a federal judge has ruled.
U.S. District Court Judge John C. Coughenour ordered Electron Hydro on Friday to remove the center portion of the structure by Sept. 15 to ensure the safe passage of chinook salmon, steelhead trout and bull trout, court records show. Each is considered threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit brought against Electron Hydro in December 2020 and amended in January 2023 by the Puyallup Tribe of Indians. It’s one of multiple cases faced by the company, court records show. The Tribe is represented by Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law group.
In a statement posted to EarthJustice.org, the organization said Friday’s ruling meant that water would flow naturally along the river for the first time in nearly a century.
“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,” the Puyallup Tribal Council said in a statement posted to the website.
An attorney representing Electron Hydro declined to comment when reached by phone. Another attorney for the company didn’t immediately respond to an email inquiry from The News Tribune.
Electron Hydro had contested the Tribe’s position. The company said that improvements made to the rock dam/spillway addressed any harms to fish, and it argued there had been no evidence of dead fish, according to the ruling.
The company also had sought for no action to be taken on the temporary structure, contending that it’d be quickest to wait for a permit to construct the permanent inflatable spillway it envisioned.
The rock dam/spillway — which “consisted of 6,000 cubic yards of rock boulders and a steel sheet on the upstream side,” according to court records — was erected as a temporary fix following a failed effort to replace a portion of a spillway during summer 2020.
During the construction project, a plastic liner covering artificial field turf laced with crumb rubber ripped and spilled toxic debris into the river. The debris flowed for 10 days. To fill the gap where the spillway once stood, Electron Hydro built the rock dam/spillway, with the hope of eventually replacing it with an inflatable spillway, court records show.
“But this has not happened,” the ruling said. “The rock structure remains today, with only minor modification since, and no date certain for its removal.”
The Puyallup Tribe of Indians sued on the basis that the rock dam unlawfully harmed and harassed fish by impeding their upstream progress.
Elizabeth Forsyth, a senior attorney with Earthjustice’s Biodiversity Defense Program, called the ruling a “monumental decision.”
“The Endangered Species Act ensures that companies like Electron cannot blatantly harm or kill threatened and endangered species,” she said in a statement. “We are thankful that the Court recognized these impacts and chose to at long last free the Puyallup River and the species that call it home.”
Electron Hydro and a key executive were ordered in May to pay $1 million in fines and restitution after pleading guilty to a gross misdemeanor in connection to the pollution of the river in 2020. It was believed to be the largest fine and restitution ever for an environmental crime in Washington state law history.
The construction project that caused the pollution had been intended to improve operations at the company’s plant that provides renewable energy to more than 20,000 customers in Pierce County.
