$50M awarded to Washington fish passage projects

Funding going in to fish passages

Aging and poorly-planned culverts have blocked fish from returning to spawning habitats, which spells trouble for many salmon species that are endangered.

SEATTLE - The floodgates are opening for fish passage funding, at a time that money is badly needed.

This week, the White House announced that 46 projects in Washington State were being greenlit for $58.2 million.

Fish culverts have long been a problem in this area. Whether it's poor design or infrastructure at the end of its lifespan, culverts have been linked to massive decline in fish populations, including a number of endangered salmon species.

"Adult salmon need to get upstream to spawn," explained Luke Kelley with Trout Unlimited. "A lot of these culverts can create a migration barrier, sometimes completely limiting access to spawning grounds."

Kelley has been on the ground working on culvert issues for years. He was part of a team that walked miles of rivers and streams, mapping previously unknown culverts throughout western Clallam and Jefferson counties.

As Kelley explained it, Western Washington's system of rivers and streams is a lot like the veins you'd see on a leaf. When you start putting roads and bridges over all those individual streams and rivers, you end up with thousands of culverts that need maintenance.

His group recently received roughly $7 million in funding for projects on the Olympic Peninsula. They also work with tribes and local governments that got funding in the latest grants announced this week.

The past year has created a number of funding opportunities between the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

"We have to think pretty big here, because we have a pretty big problem." said Kelley. "The good news is there's a lot that's been done, and the future is really, really exciting."

The recent influx of federal money isn't the only movement on fish passage, though.

A state-funded project under I-405 will be visible over the weekend when WSDOT closes the interstate in both directions between Renton and Bellevue this weekend.

"On any given weekend we see 400,000 people use [I-]405 in this area," said WSDOT spokesperson Craig Smiley. "All the roads regionally will see some impact from this."

While the impact on traffic will be severe over the weekend, the impact on salmon habitat will extend long beyond this year.

A 30-foot deep, 30-foot wide hole will be dug under I-405 to insert a culvert that will improve fish passage in the area.

Fish passage isn't just needed, it's mandated. The state was sued by more than a dozen tribes over roughly 1,000 culverts that were either too small or too damaged to allow salmon passage.

After the lawsuit, WSDOT set a goal of freeing up 90% of fish passages by 2030. Earlier this year, they said they were roughly halfway to their goal.

It's a reminder that while more money continues to arrive in Washington through state, federal and local dollars, the work is far from done.

"Restoring access to these spawning and rearing habitats across the state, across our watersheds, is very important," said Kelley.