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Environmentalists are warning that heightened wildfire risk could disrupt the current “trap-and-haul” system at EWEB's Trail Bridge Dam. They are pushing for quick interim fixes and a review that considers longer-term alternatives.
Three conservation groups are calling on federal regulators to take urgent action at Eugene Water & Electric Board’s Trail Bridge Dam, which blocks the annual migration of endangered fish species — including Chinook salmon and bull trout — that swim up and down the McKenzie River.
Cascadia Wildlands, Native Fish Society and Willamette Riverkeeper on Wednesday, April 22 — Earth Day — filed a petition with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, citing years of delays and failed efforts by EWEB to provide effective fish passage at the dam.
The groups seek interim improvements for this year’s August spawning season and a new cost-benefit analysis comparing EWEB’s proposed permanent trap-and-haul system with an alternative, such as a fish ladder.
The issue has become more pressing, the groups say, because of wildfire risk that could keep managers from accessing and operating the current system on Highway 126, which relies on manually moving fish around the dam. And, the groups say, climate models project some Chinook salmon populations could face a high risk of extinction by 2040 without access to colder upstream habitat.
Defining fish passage
To make sense of the petition, it helps to step back to how fish passage is defined.
Fish passage — as described in Oregon Administrative Rules — refers to the ability of migratory species like salmon to move upstream and downstream as they travel between the ocean and spawning habitat.
Infrastructure, including dams and culverts, can block that movement. Two long-standing methods help fish get past large barriers: volitional passage or trap-and-haul.
Volitional passage
Structures such as fish ladders let fish swim upstream on their own.
Trap-and-haul
Requires people to capture fish and transport them by truck or other means
The 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 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 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.
In a 2008 settlement between environmental groups and the utility, the parties agreed 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 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 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 sinkholes 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.
Cascadia Wildlands, Oregon Wild, Native Fish Society and Willamette Riverkeeper filed a federal complaint against EWEB last year over fish passage.
The groups alleged the dam harms threatened Chinook salmon and bull trout and that the utility was violating the Endangered Species Act. But most arguments in the case did not center on fish. Instead, the dispute turned on whether the lawsuit belonged in U.S. District Court at all.
EWEB announced plans in an Aug. 1 press release that outlined a permanent trap-and-haul facility a few hundred feet downstream of Trail Bridge Dam. The utility said it would include a new barrier system to prevent fish from migrating past the entrance. The project is slated for completion by 2032, barring any unexpected delays.
Nearly a week later, a federal judge dismissed the case.
The petition
Bethany Cotton, conservation director for Cascadia Wildlands, told Lookout Eugene-Springfield Wednesday, the groups could have appealed the case, but that process may have taken years. Instead, they pursued a petition with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission — the forum EWEB argued in court was the proper venue for the dispute.
The groups warn that low snowpack and ongoing drought are expected to fuel a longer, more intense wildfire season, increasing the likelihood of forest and road closures that could disrupt or halt trap-and-haul operations this summer.
Those risks, they argue, call into question the reliability of the current fish passage strategy — especially as the area around the Carmen-Smith Project faces high wildfire risk in the Upper McKenzie River Basin, an area still recovering from the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire.
“It (fish ladders) works whether the forests are on fire or not,” Cotton said.
The groups are asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to order EWEB to install a larger trapping cage by August and to require a new cost-benefit analysis comparing trap-and-haul system with volitional passage like fish ladders. They say the analysis should factor in ongoing staffing costs and the risk of system failures, including disruptions from wildfires and road closures, before moving forward.
They are asking for a cost analysis because, in addition to ecological concerns, Cotton and Lindsey Hutchison, staff attorney with Willamette Riverkeeper, argue that a fish ladder would be less expensive to operate and maintain over the 50-year license than the current trap-and-haul approach.
Hutchison said the agreement gave EWEB up to 10 spawning seasons — essentially 10 annual fish runs — to prove the trap-and-haul system would work, and based on the fish counts she’s seen, it has not.
“EWEB (was supposed) to show that the inferior trap-and-haul worked well enough that a fish ladder was not needed, if not, EWEB was still required to install a fish ladder,” Hutchinson said in a statement. “Instead of being deep in the monitoring period, EWEB is still at the starting line and prices have skyrocketed.”
EWEB spokesperson Aaron Orlowski emailed a statement Wednesday to Lookout Eugene-Springfield.
“While EWEB is still in the process of reviewing the petition and cannot address its substance at this time, it is disappointing, if not surprising, that a few stakeholders have once again chosen to litigate rather than engage productively and collaboratively in the upcoming FERC license amendment process.”
“EWEB remains firmly committed to implementing, as quickly as all necessary permits and approvals can be obtained, the refined trap and haul solution reached with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service just last year. This solution will achieve permanent fish passage at the earliest possible time, despite the very complex and challenging hydraulic and geologic circumstances at Trail Bridge Dam.”
“Today’s petition will not affect EWEB’s plans — announced last year — to receive feedback on a draft FERC license amendment application that will be available to the public beginning next month, and to file a final amendment application with FERC later this summer. We will redouble our efforts to ensure that today’s petition does not delay the FERC approval process, and we look forward to productive engagement on this important initiative with all interested members of the public.”
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