Washington may have to pay $2B to save salmon

Washington may have to pay $2B to save salmon

Source: kiro7

6/22/2015

Washington state may be forced to spend nearly $2 billon to restore salmon habitat by removing barriers that block fish migration.

KIRO 7's Graham Johnson is visiting culverts that need replacement, as well as those already finished. He's also checking with state officials about the amount of money spent so far to improve fish passages beneath roadways and how much more work they're planning to do, for KIRO 7 News beginning at 5 p.m. Watch on-air or here.

Washington state lost a major legal battle Friday.

A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year affirmed a lower court's 2013 ruling ordering the state to fix or replace hundreds of culverts — large pipes that allow streams to pass beneath roads but block migrating salmon.

Idaho and Montana joined Washington state in asking the appeals court to reconsider the case. The court declined to do so Friday, but several judges dissented from that decision, saying it should be reconsidered because of its significance.

"This is a win for salmon, treaty rights and everyone who lives here," Lorraine Loomis, chair of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, said in a statement. The group represents 21 tribes in western Washington that challenged the state over the culverts in 2001, part of decades-long litigation over tribal fishing rights.

"Fixing fish-blocking culverts under state roads will open up hundreds of miles of habitat and result in more salmon," she said.