A total of $500 million to build a downstream fish passage facility at Howard Hanson Dam along the Green River is part of President Joe Biden’s proposed federal budget for 2025.
Biden released a $7.3 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2025 on Monday, March 11. Congress must approve the budget.
The dam, about 25 miles east of Kent, helps protect the Green River Valley communities of Auburn, Kent, Tukwila and Renton, who depend on the earthen dam, built in 1961, to protect their lives and their work from flooding.
The dam continues to be a barrier to salmon migration.
“This US Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle District project will restore biological connectivity to more than 100 miles of high-quality salmon spawning habitat upstream of the dam,” according to a March 11 Army Corps release. “This is a 45% increase in total spawning habitat in the Green River.”
The dam has prevented an estimated $23 billion in flood damage since its completion, according to the Army Corps. The dam includes other benefits such as providing clean drinking water to the people of Tacoma, Kent, Covington and other areas, conserving fish and restoring ecosystems.
US Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, pushed hard for the funds to pass the fish.
“I have worked hard to ensure that saving our salmon is a top priority at the federal level,” Murray said in a statement. “The Howard Hanson Dam fish passage facility project is absolutely critical to salmon recovery in Washington state—and I have made it clear through extensive engagement and numerous conversations with the Army Corps and OMB (Office of Management and Budget) that we need to get done on this project, which will open up more than 100 miles of prime habitat and has the potential to produce more salmon than any other project in our region.
“We took a big step forward on this project with $220 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and another step with $50 million that I included in this year’s appropriations bills. But the most important step that we’ve been working on in this whole process is major federal funding for the actual construction of the fish passage facility.”
The goal is to complete the fish passage facilty by 2030. In 2019, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a Biological Opinion requiring the Army Corps to complete the project and have the fish passage facility operational by the end of 2030.
Tacoma Public Utilities has completed an upstream fish passage facility that is ready for operation, according to the Army Corps. When the Army Corps’ downstream facility is operational, the two facilities will open the watershed above the dam for salmon migration.
“President Biden’s budget request funding for the Howard Hanson Dam will fully cover the construction contract award for the fish passage facility—this is a real milestone and a real cause for celebration,” said said Murray. “Salmon and fish are so important to our Washington state Tribal economy, culture, and partners—and in writing our funding bills for next year, you can bet I’ll be doing my part every step of the way of a way to deliver this historic fund to return. wild salmon in our rivers and streams.”
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