SB 6154, sponsored by Sen. Jess Salomon (D–Shoreline), is a short but straightforward bill that recognizes that repair or replacement of some local government culverts would not provide any benefit to fish passage due to downstream or other fish-blocking culverts.

The bill provides the following amendments to the Hydraulic Project Approval (HPA) code as a solution in that situation under two circumstances:

• As an exception to making progress on an HPA permit within two years. This applies if a local government “permittee can demonstrate that the permit for hydraulic projects to replace existing culverts should be extended because the replacement of the culvert will not provide a substantial fish habitat benefit due to existing culverts blocking access within a specified stream reach or reaches.”
• Under a declared emergency. If the site of an emergency culvert replacement project does not provide substantial fish habitat benefits, and after the work has been completed to restore stream conveyance to preemergency conditions or to restore, repair, and protect fish life and property at the emergency location, a permittee that is a local government may apply to the state’s fish and wildlife department for permission to invest equivalent resources in upgrading an alternate fish passage barrier within that local government’s prioritized watershed strategy that would provide substantial fish habitat benefits, rather than investing those resources at the site of the emergency culvert location.

Date to remember

SB 6154 is scheduled to be heard in the Senate Local Government Committee on Thursday, January 22, at 1:30.