Seattle City Light has reached a historic $1.5B settlement to relicense its three Skagit River dams, ending years of contentious negotiations over salmon restoration and tribal reparations. (Cascadia Daily)
The utility will spend $979M on complex engineering to move salmon past the Ross, Diablo, and Gorge dams—which combined produce about 20% of Seattle's electricity.Â
A separate $350M is earmarked for the Upper Skagit, Swinomish, and Sauk-Suiattle tribes. Tribal leaders describe the deal as "righting historical wrongs" for sacred lands that were used to build the city of Seattle at the expense of native fisheries.