Seattle committee recommends Skagit relicensing settlement, sending measure to full council

The Parks and Seattle City Light Committee voted unanimously to recommend passage of Council Bill 121177, the comprehensive settlement and relicensing agreement for the Skagit River hydroelectric project. Chair Deborah Juarez moved the recommendation and the clerk recorded five ayes (Strauss, Saka, Rivera, Kettle, Juarez).

Seattle City Light officials told the committee the agreement is a milestone intended to secure hydropower for Seattle customers for the next 50 years and was negotiated with tribal partners and other stakeholders. "This is a historic milestone for City Light, and the city of Seattle, to secure an agreement that ensures the critical hydropower resource will continue to be available for the next 50 years," Craig Smith, interim director and CEO of Seattle City Light, said during the presentation.

City Light staff said the department completed 33 studies costing about $25 million to support the license application and the settlement. Chris Townsend, director of natural resources and relicensing, said the license application was submitted in April 2023 and that settlement discussions concluded in December 2025, with regulatory and treaty‑rights parties signing the agreement; City Light will be the final signature on the settlement.

Staff outlined the regulatory path that follows submission: FERC will issue a public notice, the public will have an initial 20‑day comment period, and further information requests could trigger months or years of additional study and environmental review. City Light projected, as an optimistic estimate, that a new license could be issued around 2030.

Townsend described immediate, agreement‑dependent actions that will begin once the settlement is effective: establishing a license implementation committee, launching ecosystem monitoring and adaptive management programs, completing a historical properties management plan, and advancing flow and habitat planning. He said City Light will begin additional fish‑passage studies immediately, including juvenile‑habitat work, a gravel‑augmentation pilot, process‑flow analysis to mimic storm events, and temperature monitoring. "We have one year to conduct the additional studies, and if we need to, we will conduct more work than what is required in order to make good decisions," Townsend said.

Staff also described partner roles: the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe will lead cost and schedule reporting for a downstream collector and other fish‑passage elements within six months; the National Park Service will lead a Ross access feasibility study; and fish stock selection and management plans will be developed by tribal fish managers, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Council members praised the multi‑year, multi‑party effort and emphasized the importance of acknowledging treaty history and prior litigation that shaped tribes' rights and access to fisheries. Council Member Teresa Rivera urged that future presentations include the full history of treaties and legal fights that helped bring tribes to the negotiating table. "When we say tribal or traditional, we also had the science," Rivera said, urging historical context be included as the measure moves forward.

The committee's recommendation moves Council Bill 121177 to the full City Council for consideration on April 7 at 2:00 p.m. If adopted by the council and executed by the mayor, staff said the agreement would trigger the near‑term implementation actions while the formal federal relicensing process proceeds.