Another billion dollars of highway construction to restore salmon habitat will likely be coming to Western Washington over the next six years.
The state Legislature approved an additional $1.1 billion for court-ordered Department of Transportation culvert replacement projects, bringing the program’s roughly two-decade total to $5.2 billion. At least for now. Gov. Bob Ferguson still has until May 20 to review and veto items in the budget.
Representatives from the state and tribal nations are also expected to begin mediation over the program’s schedule and scope, maybe as soon as this month, said W. Ron Allen, chair of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe. The talks, part of a tribal treaty fishing rights case, will determine how much more the vast habitat restoration will cost the state.
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Allen said the additional funding shows legislators are prioritizing this salmon restoration work under difficult fiscal conditions.
“Is it enough? The answer is, ‘No, it’s not enough.’ But relative to the challenge that the state has with its revenues,” Allen said, and that the state can’t rely on federal funding, “it tells me that they care, and that they want to live up to the obligation of the court case and the court mandate.”
A Senate proposal that would have set up a new $5 billion fund never made it out of committee after facing opposition from Ferguson and others.
In the end, the chambers agreed on a $15.6 billion transportation budget for the 2025-27 biennium, including a gas tax increase. Of that total, $120 million of new funding was pegged for the culvert replacements.
The Washington State Department of Transportation is under a federal court order to replace hundreds of fish-blocking culverts in Western Washington. Culverts are typically metal or concrete pipes that carry streams under state highways, but some — because of their design or lack of maintenance — block salmon and steelhead trout migration.
A group of 21 tribal nations sued to replace state-owned problem culverts, and in 2013, a federal judge ordered the state to replace most of them by 2030. The ruling was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
A Seattle Times investigation last year highlighted WSDOT fish passage projects — some costing more than $100 million each — that are essentially useless without further large investments. Some tribal leaders and state legislators have been questioning the effectiveness of restoration projects, especially as the state faced a multibillion-dollar shortfall.
Heading into the legislative session last fall, WSDOT asked for $5 billion more, on top of nearly $4 billion already allocated or spent on culvert replacements. That would have allowed WSDOT to finish the culverts on the 2030 list. But even if they received full funding, state leaders acknowledged they were no longer on track to meet the deadline. Both sides have agreed to mediation.
Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, D-Tacoma, introduced a bill in late March that would have diverted tax revenue that currently funds local public works projects to instead pay for culvert replacements. Over 13 years, it was expected to generate $5 billion using an unusual bond scheme.
Trudeau hoped the $5 billion fund would send a strong signal to the tribes that the state was committed to the work. But it hit opposition from Ferguson and local governments.
The governor’s office expressed concern about bond market volatility, and representatives from cities and counties said a reliable and critical source of public works funding was at risk. Ferguson’s office did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
“We’re encouraged that the Legislature ultimately recognized that it’s important to maintain local infrastructure funding,” said Carl Schroeder, a lobbyist for the Association of Washington Cities, which represents cities and towns.
Lawmakers in the House didn’t take up the bill, partly out of concern for the impact on local governments, said Rep. Steve Tharinger, D-Port Townsend, chair of the House Capital Budget Committee.
“It would be pretty devastating” to city and county public works budgets, Tharinger said. Instead, he hopes the state and tribes can come to an agreement that will balance WSDOT culvert replacements with other salmon habitat restoration, including city and county projects.
The budget includes an additional $450,000, Tharinger said, to finish a long-awaited state strategy to replace fish passage barriers across the state.
“You can’t look at this obligation in a very purist approach,” said Allen, the Jamestown S’Klallam chairman. “You have to look at it with a little more open-mindedness and flexibility because there might be better ways to accomplish the goal. And the goal is to restore the salmon species — and stocks of those species — to sustainable levels.”
