Congressional delegation secures $220 million for fish passage on the Green River, TPU’s primary drinking water source | |
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Source: thesubtimes |
4/2/2022 |
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Tacoma Public Utilities’ (TPU) Federal delegation led by U.S. Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and U.S. Representatives Kim Schrier, Derek Kilmer, Marilyn Strickland and Adam Smith secured $220 million in funding to complete design and begin construction of downstream fish passage at the Howard Hanson Dam on the Green River, TPU’s primary source of drinking water. The funding for Howard Hanson represents one of the largest allocations to an Army Corps of Engineers project under the federal bipartisan infrastructure law. |
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Howard Hanson Dam is a multi-purpose project operated by the Army Corps on the Green River. The Green River continues to serve as Tacoma Water’s primary drinking water source and a key supply resource to hundreds of thousands of residents in Pierce and King counties.
Downstream fish passage at Howard Hanson will help ensure additional drinking water storage to meet future regional needs, while reopening tens of miles of important salmon and steelhead habitat that will increase salmon production, critical for recovery of Southern Resident orcas. The State of Washington’s Lead Entity for salmon recovery in the Green and Duwamish rivers believes that completing Howard Hanson downstream fish passage will approximately double the available habitat for endangered salmon and steelhead in the Green-Duwamish watershed and could be the largest single opportunity to increase salmon production in Puget Sound. |
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