From Native Fish Society March 2025
– Peter Jensen, Cascadia Wildlands
Eugene Water and Electric Board Violating Endangered Types Act
Supporters Take Legal Action Against to Address Damage to Bull Trout and Chinook Salmon
EUGENE, OR– Today, preservation companies filed suit versus the Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB) declaring continuous offenses of the Endangered Types Act (ESA). For over sixteen years, the general public energy has actually run out legal compliance with federal requirements to supply correct fish passage for ESA-listed Chinook salmon and bull trout at the Carmen-Smith Hydroelectric Job and Path Bridge Dam on the well known McKenzie River.
EWEB’s failure to supply appropriate fish passage has actually led to killing and hurting Chinook salmon and bull trout as the fish attempt to move up and downriver, an offense of the ESA’s restriction on “take”– consisting of hurting, pestering, injuring, and killing– of noted types. EWEB’s inactiveness likewise avoids the fish from accessing crucial spawning, rearing, and feeding locations.
” For almost twenty years, Upper Willamette River Chinook salmon and bull trout have actually paid the rate for EWEB’s persistent non-compliance,” stated Peter Jensen, a lawyer with Cascadia Wildlands. “Responsibility for the major damage to secured fish types is required to fix course and make sure the health of the river and perseverance of these renowned fish types.”
EWEB’s dam license at the Carmen-Smith Hydroelectric Job (released by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC) is conditioned on the building and construction of fish passage at Path Bridge Dam. EWEB at first accepted set up a fish ladder at the dam, however later on ditched this prepare for an inferior proposition for a trap-and-haul system based upon an upgraded financial analysis. The National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service granted the less reliable strategy mostly since EWEB assured to develop that center rapidly. EWEB then missed out on several due dates and has yet to even break ground on a trap-and-haul center that was needed to be finished in 2022. Additionally, EWEB has actually openly confessed that its short-lived mitigation efforts have either totally or almost totally stopped working.
In 2023, on-the-record statements from a previous EWEB employee-turned-whistleblower emerged, declaring that EWEB never ever meant to execute fish passage which its reasons for hold-ups were not legitimate. Both the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service then withdrew from the 2018 joint settlement arrangement with EWEB and other stakeholders. The specialist fish companies likewise informed FERC that EWEB might no longer depend on their 2018 Biological Viewpoints and Incidental Take Declarations without reinitiating assessment under the ESA.
” EWEB is blatantly ignoring federal law,” stated Hannah Goldblatt, personnel lawyer at Supporters for the West. “Short of a court needing it to do so, it appears the general public energy will continue to postpone its dedications to finish appropriate fish passage, at the expenditure of threatened Chinook salmon and bull trout.”
The Upper Willamette River Chinook salmon subpopulation, long viewed as a fortress for this threatened types, has actually even more decreased over the previous 16 years with recognized salmon deaths taking place at the Path Bridge Dam due to the absence of passage. The dam is likewise a complete barrier to hereditary exchange in between bull trout populations listed below and above the dam.
” The McKenzie River and the threatened salmon and trout that call it home come from everybody, however for years EWEB has actually stopped working to keep its guarantee to assist fish navigate Path Bridge Dam to generate,” stated John Persell, personnel lawyer for Oregon Wild. “We are going to make them meet that guarantee and safeguard the McKenzie.”
In addition to the continuous damage triggered to Chinook salmon and bull trout, the myriad hold-ups have actually likely increased expenses to ratepayers and the general expenditure of bringing the job into compliance with federal law. Cascadia Wildlands brought their issues to EWEB’s board of commissioners in Might 2024 in both oral and in-depth composed remarks.
” Salmon and bull trout have an amazing capability to recuperate when we merely meet our duty to supply reliable and safe fish passage to and from premium environment like we have in the upper McKenzie River,” stated Jennifer Fairbrother, legal and policy director for the Native Fish Society.
The companies bringing match are Cascadia Wildlands, Willamette Riverkeeper, Native Fish Society, and Oregon Wild. They are represented by lawyers at Public Justice, Supporters for the West, Cascadia Wildlands, and Willamette Riverkeeper.
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Extra background:
Tribal entities and local preservation groups have actually long participated in promoting for fish passage at the Carmen-Smith Hydroelectric Job and Path Bridge Dam. In 2008, EWEB submitted a settlement arrangement with the Federal Energy and Regulatory Commission (FERC), preservation companies, and People in which EWEB accepted build brand-new cutting edge volitional fish passage steps (a fish ladder) to permit fish access to miles of beautiful river environment above the Carmen-Smith Job. This never ever happened.
In 2018 a brand-new settlement arrangement was reached with FERC, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Service to execute inferior trap-and-haul centers in lieu of volitional passage within 3 years. These minimized requirements triggered Cascadia Wildlands and Oregon Wild to leave the settlement.
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Cascadia Wildlands deals with behalf of its over 15,000 members and advocates to protect and bring back Cascadia’s wild environments in the forests, in the courts, and in the streets.
Oregon Wild represents 20,000 members and advocates who share our objective to safeguard and bring back Oregon’s wildlands, wildlife, and water as a long-lasting tradition. Our objective is to safeguard locations that stay undamaged while making every effort to bring back locations that have actually been deteriorated.
Willamette Riverkeeper is a 501( c)( 3) non-profit company established in 1996 with countless members in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Willamette Riverkeeper concentrates on safeguarding and bring back the resources of the Willamette River Basin in Oregon and deals with programs and jobs varying from the Tidy Water Act compliance and river education to Superfund clean-up and bring back environment.
The Native Fish Society is a preservation not-for-profit with an objective to bring back plentiful wild fish, free-flowing rivers, and flourishing regional neighborhoods throughout Oregon and the Pacific Northwest.
Supporters for the West is a non-profit, public interest ecological law practice that works to protect public lands, water, fish, and wildlife throughout the American West.
Public Justice handles the greatest systemic risks to justice of our time– violent business power and predatory practices, the attack on civil liberties and liberties, and the damage of the earth’s sustainability. We link high-impact lawsuits with tactical interactions and the strength of our collaborations to combat these violent and prejudiced systems and win social and financial justice. To find out more, check out www.PublicJustice.net.
