Victory — Ruling means a free-flowing Puyallup River for fish for the first time in more than 100 years
SEATTLE, Wash. – In a vindication for the Puyallup Tribe, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today affirmed an earlier federal district court order requiring a portion of the Electron dam to be removed from the Puyallup River because of the harms caused by the dam to Chinook salmon, steelhead and bull trout, which are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
The decision will allow the Puyallup River to flow naturally for the first time in more than 100 years.
The Puyallup Tribe, represented by Earthjustice, first sued Electron Hydro under the Clean Water Act in 2020 after the company illegally discharged artificial plastic turf and toxic crumb rubber in the river as part of a failed construction project to rebuild the company’s aging dam. The company was trying to build a temporary bypass channel which then ruptured, spilling the toxic contents into the river.
During the time immediately following the turf release into the river and after construction was halted due to the artificial turf and crumb rubber spill, the company hastily built a “temporary” rock dam and sheet pile wall that blocked fish passage. That blockage has remained in place despite repeated directives from federal agencies and requests from the Tribe to remove it.
The Puyallup Tribe also sued Electron under the Endangered Species Act – for harms to threatened fish from the operation of the water intake at the dam that routed fish to the generation facility and resulted in fish injury and death, and from the rock dam and sheet pile wall. Today’s ruling affirms a federal district court victory from February of this year that agreed with the Tribe and ordered the rock dam structure to be removed because it caused fish to swim away from the fish ladder toward the dam that blocks their passage upstream. Work is required by September to allow this year’s migrating adults to safely and efficiently pass the dam.
“We are celebrating this ruling today and looking forward to seeing this terrible rock dam structure removed soon,” said the Puyallup Tribal Council, the Tribe’s elected governing body. “It will take years to undo the harms Electron has caused, but this is an important start.”
“It has been an honor work with the Tribe to ensure that at long last, salmon, trout and other aquatic species will be able to move freely upstream along the Puyallup River,” said Earthjustice attorney Janette Brimmer. “The Endangered Species Act ensures that companies like Electron Hydro can’t blatantly harm or kill threatened or endangers species, and it is good to see the law applied and upheld.”
The Tribe and Earthjustice also recently received a lab report about the rubber used in the bladder dam that Electron Hydro wants to put in the river in place of the rock dam. That rubber has 6PPD in it – the same highly toxic chemical found in tires that is responsible for killing salmon up and down the West Coast.
Puyallup Tribal Council worked hard in getting a large portion of Electron Dam removed and these efforts have paid off. They would also like to thank the Tribe’s Legal Department and Fisheries Department for all their hard work and dedication.
Earthjustice represents the Puyallup Tribe in the lawsuit against Electron Hydro LLC.
Media Contacts
Michael Thompson, Puyallup Tribe of Indians, (253) 382-6200, Michael.Thompson@PuyallupTribe-nsn.gov
Elizabeth Manning, Earthjustice, (907) 277-2555, emanning@earthjustice.org
