It’s long been a problem for fish. Now, it’s a problem for people, too.

Fish that have spent years maturing in the open ocean try to return to their spawning grounds in the region’s rivers and tributaries only to find the door closed.

Clogged and broken culverts — at least 702 of them in Snohomish County — keep fish from miles of spawning beds. It’s part of the reason fish runs have dwindled to just a fraction of their historic levels.

The state is already feeling the pinch. Local American Indian tribes won a lawsuit last year that now forces state crews to fix culverts faster than ever before.

State biologists who make their living surveying streams, rivers and tributaries have counted 258 fish barriers owned by Snohomish County government. That’s more than any city government or private landowner in the county, according to data maintained by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Lawyers for local tribes say there’s no specific plan to sue the county, but the tribes expect governments to learn a lesson from the state’s predicament.

The scope of the problem

Statewide, the Department of Transportation owns 1,660 damaged culverts and other fish barriers. A federal judge last year ruled that the state must fix those barriers in order to fulfill its obligation to the region’s American Indian tribes. The state owns 173 fish barriers in Snohomish County.

David Brookings, director of Snohomish County’s surface water management department, said he wasn’t aware that the state had counted 258 county-owned fish barriers. His department isn’t sure exactly how many barriers the county owns.

“I think we’re still doing an inventory of our facilities,” Brookings said.

Brookings said county employees have examined more than 360 culverts “in the last couple of years,” and about 110 of those could be blocking fish from reaching spawning habitat.

According to a county report released in January, county crews surveyed 113 county-owned culverts last year and found that 67 of them — 59 percent — prevent fish access to upstream habitat. All the culverts surveyed are within the habitat of chinook salmon, steelhead and bull trout. Runs of all three species are protected under the Endangered Species Act.

State data show that 183 fish barriers in the county are on private land. Cities own 66 barriers, and the federal government owns 20. Tribal governments are responsible for just two.

Nearly two dozen American Indian tribes, including the Tulalip and Stillaguamish tribes, sued the state in 2001 for failing to live up to its end of the Treaty of Point Elliott, which the federal government signed with the tribes in 1855. The tribes exchanged what is about one-fifth of Washington state for medical care, education and a guarantee that they’d be able to continue their traditional way of life.

The lawsuit, known as the Culvert Case, stemmed from the 1974 Boldt decision, in which a federal judge affirmed treaty rights, holding that tribal members are entitled to 50 percent of all harvestable fish and shellfish in the region.

Last year, U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo Martinez ruled that the state has failed to provide the tribes with their treaty right to thriving fish runs, which are crucial to tribal culture, by not fixing clogged and damaged culverts. The state argued that it has a plan in place to fix culverts, but Martinez said it wasn’t working fast enough.

The tribes have sued only the state, but attorneys for the tribes say counties, cities and whoever else owns land with fish barriers should take note.

“I don’t think anyone has a playbook with the next steps written on it, but there has been a state law for some time that requires for fish passage,” said John Sledd, the lead attorney for tribes in the Culvert Case. “Obviously the tribes hope that whoever has fish passage barriers will respect that.”

Development a factor

The county’s problem areas exist where large-scale development is occurring. Mill Creek and Bothell, Marysville and the area north of Arlington are all hot spots for blocked fish passage. There are 29 blocked fish passages within Bothell’s city limits — the most of any city.

There are 23 fish barriers along Highway 530, which forks east from Highway 9 and hits Darrington before turning north into Skagit County. Private roads account for 21 fish barriers.

State biologists have personally surveyed each of the fish barriers, said Jon Peterson, a fish passage coordinator with the state Department of Transportation.

Repairing all the state’s culverts would restore fish access to more than 2,300 miles of habitat, according to state records. But barriers owned by the counties, cities and private landowners would still hinder fish runs.

The county is cautious about relying on the state’s data because some scientists disagree on whether certain culverts are actually barriers, said Tim Wells, the county’s salmon recovery program leader.

The state, in its defense during the Culvert Case, said it had removed 180 fish barriers along state highways between 1991 and 2006. That’s a little more than 13 barriers per year.

The state also removed 543 barriers along state forest roads between 1999 and 2005 — about 90 per year.

The tribes argued that the state’s rate wasn’t fast enough, and a federal judge agreed.

Between 1993 and 2007, the county has replaced about 130 culverts to improve fish passage, said Brookings, the county’s surface water director. That’s about nine replacements per year.

The problem is much bigger than culverts, said Tom Murdoch, director of the Adopt-A-Stream Foundation, which helps private landowners get grants to fix problems including fish barriers.

Many of the culverts that are now fish barriers provided adequate fish passage when they were built, he said.

Development and other changes in the region have directed groundwater into streams, forcing water through culverts at a rate too fast for fish to handle. In some cases, rushing water has eroded the earth around the culvert, leaving drops too high for a fish to jump.

“The salmon runs in our urban areas have dramatically declined since I have been surveying them over the past 30 years,” Murdoch said. “We used to have silver salmon out here in McCollum Park coming in so thick that you had the sense you could walk across them.”

‘There are solutions’

Local memories of healthy fish runs date back to a time when roads, homes and businesses were being built without consideration of fish habitat.

Fish haven’t spawned in Wagley’s Creek, just east of Sultan, for at least 30 years, said Tom Burns, a biologist with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

That’s when mill workers laid lumber across the creek to form a dam. They built a flume out of wood, railroad ties and a large concrete block.

Today, the mill is gone. Left behind are concrete chunks and sodden lumber that create a waterfall fish can’t traverse, Burns said.

To restore Puget Sound to the vibrancy that tribes in 1855 expected would last forever, homes must be smaller, lawns must be replaced by native plants, and driveways and roads must be built with porous pavement to allow rainwater to seep into the ground, Murdoch said.

“There are solutions, if the public decides it wants to take action,” he said.

With last year’s federal ruling, the tribes now have a legal precedent that action must be taken to prevent further environmental degradation.

“It’s not like the tribes are leaping into court every possible moment,” said Sledd, a lead attorney for tribes in the Culvert Case. “Obviously the tribes believe that the treaties do require that the fisheries be preserved. If these many thousands of county and municipal culverts are impairing the tribes’ fisheries, then the same principles apply.”

Reporter Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422 or kkapralos@heraldnet.com.