Passage ‘failure’ at EWEB dam killing endangered fish, conservation groups warn

Jennifer Fairbrother grew up listening to the sounds of breaching fish tails slapping the surface of wild waters.

Migrating runs of chinook salmon swam from the Pacific Ocean through the Willamette River near her rural childhood home.

But the river symphony has gone silent, a decline connected to a disrupted journey back to the river’s mountainous watershed, where the salmon life cycle begins and ends, she says. These are the species’ homewaters, where they are born before leaving their freshwater roots for a life in the salty ocean. Once mature, they return to create the next generation. 

“The genetics of these runs are really distinct,” said Fairbrother, a lifelong angler who is trained in scientific fish surveying. “In some cases, the exact spawning beds, exact reaches, if not the general reach of the river that they emerged from.” 

She was referring to Chinook salmon that migrate up the McKenzie River, a Willamette tributary. The Trail Bridge Dam blocks them from cold, high-elevation habitat upstream.

The dam is one of three in the Carmen-Smith Hydropower Project along Highway 126, owned and operated by the Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB). For the past few years, EWEB has attempted to facilitate salmon passage by trapping the fish and hauling them by truck to the other side of the dam. 

But Fairbrother, along with the organization she works for as a legislative and policy director, Native Fish Society, says that’s not adequate passage for a species listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

Native Fish Society has joined Cascadia Wildlands, Oregon Wild, and Willamette Riverkeeper in a legal complaint against EWEB, alleging the utility has and continues to violate the act. The groups argue that the dam is harming salmon by injuring them, blocking their migration, and in some cases, causing death during passage. They say migratory bull trout, also listed under the act, faces similar threats.

A judge will hear oral arguments Monday in the Eugene division of U.S. District Court. 

Chinook salmon have evolved over centuries to navigate natural barriers like waterfalls and downed logs. But this kind of human-made infrastructure, Fairbrother says, is beyond what they can overcome.

“They’re amazingly adapted,” she said. “One of the things that I find the most extraordinary is when humans get out of the way of these fish, they can do amazing things to recover.”

Fish passage fallout 

The Carmen-Smith Hydropower Project began operations in 1963 as a major source of local electricity for Eugene-area residents. It quickly became Eugene Water & Electric Board’s largest energy facility, powering roughly 16,000 homes per year. 

The utility maintains its strategic value hasn’t faded: the plant can quickly ramp up or down to meet peak demand, reducing EWEB’s reliance on the Bonneville Power Administration and supporting grid resiliency during emergencies. It’s also a source of carbon-free energy and a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels. 

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regulates hydroelectric projects on public waterways and generally requires a relicense every 50 years. EWEB filed an application for a new license in 2006. At the time, environmental groups — including Cascadia Wildlands and Oregon Wild — advocated for fish passage at Trail Bridge Dam, the lowermost dam in the hydropower system. 

There are two types of fish passages at dams: a fish ladder, which allows fish to swim upstream on their own, or a trap-and-haul system, where humans capture migrating fish and transport them around barriers by truck or other means.

In a 2008 settlement between environmental groups and the utility, they agreed on a plan to build a fish ladder at the dam. But in a final settlement in 2016, that changed to trap-and-haul. EWEB concluded a fish ladder wasn’t economically viable and promised a permanent, upgraded trap-and-haul system — one that has yet to be built.

The current FERC license, approved in 2019, requires EWEB to install that permanent facility at Trail Bridge Dam. Development was paused in 2021 due to the discovery of a sinkhole near the site of the future trap-and-haul system, but in late 2024, EWEB received approval to resume design and construction, which it says is now underway.

“Since it’s a FERC-licensed facility, we can hardly make any changes to the project without FERC approval,” EWEB spokesperson Aaron Orlowski said. “All parties are involved in trying to make sure that a facility like the Trail Bridge Dam is operated in such a way that causes the least harm to wildlife. 

“EWEB stands by that trap-and-haul is still a totally viable fish passage method for these fish going forward,” he said. 

Some people who have worked near the dam say they have seen otherwise. 

Josh Moody has worked for and volunteered with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, which temporarily contracted with EWEB to operate the trap-and-haul facility at the Trail Bridge Dam. Moody helped with moving bull trout in 2023, according to his declaration filed as part of the lawsuit. 

“This facility, as it currently stands and operates, is a complete failure,” Moody wrote. “It is based on a trap used in another system with different variables and with no application here.” 

Moody said that from an engineering standpoint, the dam is overbuilt and poorly placed — sitting at the top of the spawning channel rather than along the main river flow. He criticized the limited water at the trap’s entrance, noting it offers little attraction for salmon, which rely on strong currents to move upstream. He also described the trap as small and questioned whether fish transfers can reliably occur even if they make it inside.

“Success depends entirely on the use and access of the two-lane highway during the months of August-October (spawning season),” he wrote. “Those of us who live in Western Oregon know too well that these months are also peak for wildfire season.” 

When there is fire in the canyon, the highway closes. That happened during the Lookout Fire in 2023.

It’s an example of how climate change is compounding stressors to a threatened species. Moody and more than 10 others — including biostatisticians, ecologists, and career fishermen — wrote in their declarations. 

Another factor: warming rivers. The cold-water habitat upstream from the dam is becoming increasingly critical for the survival of native fish, researchers warn. That stretch of river, currently blocked by the dam, offers thermal refuge that could become essential as temperatures rise. 

Climate models predict some populations of chinook salmon could face a high risk of extinction by 2040 if they remain without access to these colder headwaters.

A turning point  

For the salmon who do make it past the dam, their spawn must survive the spillway when going downstream. That’s when fish swim through water that overflows from the dam’s channels.

Mortality rates range from 0 to 15%, according to figures cited in evidence submitted by environmental groups. Their complaint states that EWEB estimates about 200 Chinook salmon fry and juveniles are killed, injured, or stressed each year during spillway passage. The EWEB spokesperson told Lookout Eugene-Springfield that “we don’t know where the plaintiffs got these numbers.” 

EWEB denies violating the Endangered Species Act and has filed a motion to dismiss the complaint. The utility argues that only the U.S. Courts of Appeals — not a district court — can rule on challenges to FERC-licensed hydropower projects. It says the lawsuit is effectively a challenge to fish passage requirements set by FERC, which must first be handled with the commission. EWEB calls the lawsuit unnecessary and says ratepayers will ultimately bear the cost. 

“It would have been far less expensive [for EWEB] to have complied with the Endangered Species Act,” Cascadia Wildlands Conservation Director Bethany Cotton said.

“I’m an EWEB ratepayer, and I’ve been really disappointed by how they’ve handled this, personally as well as professionally. I don’t think that our allegedly progressive public utilities should be one of the biggest threats to two iconic species of the Pacific Northwest.” 

Cotton says says their attorneys were thorough and deliberate in bringing forth the lawsuit. Their goal is to protect salmon and bull trout and prevent further harm now and in the future. With spawning season approaching, the groups are also asking the court to order short-term upgrades to the trap-and-haul system while the broader case is resolved.

A judge is scheduled to hear arguments on both the motion to dismiss and the injunction on Monday. A decision could come that day or in the weeks that follow.

Fairbrother sees this moment as a turning point in natural resource management — one she hopes can avoid the kind of division she witnessed during the timber wars, the debate over logging that tore apart towns in the West in the 1980s and ’90s. 

But this doesn’t have to be a fight, she said, arguing that a balanced, self-sustaining solution is possible if agencies, tribes, and communities work together.

“We have these declining runs all over and we’re going to have to make some really tough decisions in the society about what we want the future of the Northwest to look like,” Fairbrother said. “And whether or not we really want to make the changes that might be necessary in order to have a lot of these native species around for future generations, for the cultural and ecological benefits that they provide to this region.”