Washington U.S. Sen. Patty Murray is warning about a new Trump administration spending plan that doesn’t include $500 million in funding for a fishway project on the Green River near Seattle.
Murray and others have defended fish passages for decades for threatened Chinook salmon at the federally owned Howard A. Hanson Dam. They may need to wait longer.
Under the Biden administration’s index, the project was to receive $500 million in construction budgets for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, but the proposed work plan this week has brought the project to zero.
“We are furious that this administration is planning to give back unilaterally at Howard Hanson Dam. This is an incredible betrayal…and a ridiculous, unacceptable set-off in our important work to protect our water supplies, protect our communities from dangerous floods, and save our salmon,” Murray said in a news release.
Senator Maria Cantwell also said funding for the project was essential and criticised Cut.
“Building a fish passage at Howard Hanson Dam is key to reopening at least 60 miles of main salmon and steelhead habitats, almost double the spawning grounds of the endangered salmon and steelhead Green River,” Cantwell said. “Withholding this project has turned its back on tribal, commercial and recreational fishing families, and it also waives our commitment to tribal treaty rights, ignoring federal law aimed at protecting salmon.”
The Engineers’ Corps Seattle District Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on funding.
Murray, a Democrat, was among them. A bipartisan chorus A Washington state lawmaker pushes the corps that build and operate soil levee dams to make fish passages a priority. Through funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act of 2022, Murray helped secure $220 million for the Howard Hanson Dam Fish Passage Facility Project, and an additional $50 million to help the corps continue their designs and award construction contracts.
Murray has written an invoice she wrote as chairman in the 2025 budget bill. Passed the committee August 2024, and House Republicans’ Accounting Bill of 2025. The Army will need funds to implement the construction contract options this year, and construction will begin as planned in 2026.
The dam is located on the Green River and flows from the Cascade Mountains, north of Mount Rainier. It snakes through the fiery Geyser State Park, Auburn and Kent, then becomes Seattle’s only river, Dewamish. Since the Tacoma Head Works repurposed dam began operation in the 1910s, the Upper Green River had no access to Chinook, Coho Salmon and Steelhead.
The detour dam, about three miles downstream of Howard Hanson, was upgraded so that adult salmon can be tracked over the dam once the Howard Hanson Fish Passage project is completed. But up until then, salmon remained blocked from about half of the green river, with all the remaining habitats being all.
Completed in 1962, Howard Hanson Dam aims to reduce the flood risk in Green River Valley, where past flooding has occurred more regularly. Seven decades before its construction, the valley was flooded more than 30 times, causing severe damage to land and buildings.
Murray’s comments were in response to the Corps’ Thursday release. Work Plandetailing how funds provided by Congress will be spent under the 2025 Republicans’ annual continuing resolution.
According to Murray’s office, the plan shows whether Trump’s Army Corps of Engineers will either zero or significantly cut funding for key projects across Washington and across the country.
This story used material from the Seattle Times Archives.
