Electron Hydroelectric Project

[5] The upstream migration of spawning adult salmon and rainbow trout is possible by a concrete, 300-foot (91 m) fish ladder built alongside the wooden diversion dam opposite the flume intake.

Migrating juvenile fish that inadvertently enter the wooden flume downstream will be captured alive and placed back in the Puyallup River using a trap-and-haul facility, which is located in the storage reservoir’s forebay.

[2] On July 29, 2020, Electron Hydro, the company that owns and operates the dam, experienced an industrial accident in which crumb rubber debris was released into the Puyallup River.

[6] In early May 2023, a Pierce County Superior Court Judge had approved a $1 million settlement in a criminal lawsuit brought by the state Attorney General’s Office over a 2020 spill of rubber into the Puyallup River during a construction project at the old wooden dam.

Chunks of the turf padding, made of ground-up tire rubber that is toxic to fish when ingested, were found as far as 21 miles (34 km) downriver after it was used without a permit to line a water-diversion channel.

Electron Hydro Chief Operating Officer Thom Fischer pleaded guilty to a gross criminal misdemeanor and received a suspended jail sentence.