After a Century Powering Its Growth with Dams, Seattle Settles With Tribes That Lost Their River
Key takeaways
- Republish Scott Schuyler of the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe negotiated with Seattle City Light for nearly a decade to hammer out an agreement for fish passage around three dams on the Skagit River.
- While flattering itself for being “really green,” the city did not trumpet its longtime claim that the high-mountain dams had no significant effect on migrating salmon.
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Republish Scott Schuyler of the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe negotiated with Seattle City Light for nearly a decade to hammer out an agreement for fish passage around three dams on the Skagit River. Credit: Blaine Harden/Inside Climate News Related How the Rush to Mine the Metal of the Future Echoes America’s Colonial Past Dam Useless: Barriers Prevent a Migratory Fish from Reproducing Habitat Loss Is Eroding Tribal Sovereignty Share This Article Republish Most Popular Plugging Away at the Millions of Derelict Oil and Gas Wells in the US As El Niño Approaches, Scientists Predict Fierce Heatwaves, Wildfires and Floods $370 Million Payout NEWHALEM, Wash.—More than a century ago, Seattle City Light broke ground for a massive hydroelectric project here in a remote gorge of the North Cascades. Three dams soon powered the rise of what would become one of America’s richest and most liberal cities.
The Skagit River dams, the first of which was completed in 1926, have enabled Seattle’s citizen-owned utility to brag that it “has delivered carbon-free hydropower for over 100 years.” It claims to be the first utility in the nation to be carbon neutral.
While flattering itself for being “really green,” the city did not trumpet its longtime claim that the high-mountain dams had no significant effect on migrating salmon. Since Calvin Coolidge was in the White House, City Light has quietly insisted that the upper Skagit—before the dams were built—was too swift and gnarly for salmon. It contends that the wild river itself, not dams, is to blame for the absence of upriver salmon.