The Eugene Water and Electric Board unveiled a plan to permanently add a trap-and-haul fish passage at the Trail Bridge Dam in eastern Lane County.
The utility says it will complete work on the downstream fish passage by 2030 and upstream by 2032.
EWEB agreed to build fish passages in 2008. An environmental group sued the utility earlier this year alleging its delay violated the Endangered Species Act. Two of the fish who are cut off from spawning grounds by Trail Bridge Dam are endangered Chinook salmon and bull trout.
A spokesperson for the utility said the new proposal is unrelated to that lawsuit.
"The discussions we launched with the federal regulatory agencies, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service, started before the lawsuit was filed. So we were embarking on this process before any litigation occurred," said Aaron Orlowski.
The river is a migratory path for endangered Chinook salmon and bull trout.
Cascadia Wildland, which filed the lawsuit against EWEB, said this is further delay to the project, which was originally agreed to in 2008.
“These species, they just can’t continue to experience that delay. These are really important cold, refugial waters for these two species that continue to decline,” said Cascadia Wildland Conservation Director Bethany Cotton.
The utility agreed to build a fish ladder in earlier plans, but later said it would switch to a trap-and-haul operation.
Cotton said trap-and-haul leaves the operation vulnerable to highway closures in an area that has experienced intermittent wildfire closures in recent years.
Trail Bridge Dam is one of three dams that make up the Carmen-Smith Hydroelectric Project along the McKenzie River.
