EDMONDS — The Edmonds Environmental Council, a community nonprofit, filed a complaint with the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife on July 14, claiming the city of Edmonds’ management of flood diverters on Perrinville Creek is illegal.
The complaint is the latest in a long and controversial battle over the creek’s path to Puget Sound.
Roughly 40 years ago, homeowners and Edmonds city staff began altering Perrinville’s route to make room for development and to reduce flooding in the increasingly residential area. But the adjustments made the creek increasingly difficult for fish to navigate.
In 2021, city staff illegally installed flow diversion structures during a winter storm, completely cutting off the natural flow of water and running the last few hundred feet of creek through a ductile pipe, rendering the stream inaccessible to fish.
After the installation, Washington’s Department of Fish and Wildlife ordered the city to restore the creek’s natural path, but since 2021, the city has yet to comply.
In the Edmonds Environmental Council complaint, the group claims the city is breaking state law by failing to restore natural fish passage. With a run of salmon expected this fall, patience is running thin for local environmentalists.
In 2023, Joe Scordino, a retired fisheries biologist and President of the Edmonds Environmental Council, joined volunteers from the Edmonds Stream Team in releasing 4,000 coho salmon fry into Perrinville Creek.
“Those coho, the ones that survive, would be coming back in this year, this October,” Scordino said.
But with the pipe and flow diverters still in place, there’s nowhere for the fish to go.
“The City’s actions will negatively impact and likely result in injury and mortality of coho salmon placed in the creek to enhance and restore salmon,” the complaint states.
Citing the pending legal matter, Edmonds spokesperson Neil Neroutsos said the city did not have any additional comments.
Scordino said he wants the state Fish and Wildlife Department to enforce its order, make city staff remove the illegal flow diverters and move the accumulated sediment so the water can flow freely to the Sound.
“We don’t have an issue with the Department of Fish and Wildlife issuing hydraulic permits to maintain the overflow structures,” he said, clarifying he understands the need to manage flooding risk in the area. “We’re not opposed to working with the city for the long-term solution, but it doesn’t mean in the interim that we have to block fish passage.”
Eliza Aronson: 425-339-3434; eliza.aronson@heraldnet.com; X: @ElizaAronson.
Eliza’s stories are supported by the Herald’s Environmental and Climate Reporting Fund.
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