Muckleshoot: Lake Tapps plan puts fish at risk

Tacoma News Tribune:

Federally protected stocks of salmon and bull trout will lose if the state goes ahead with its proposal to divvy up White River water between Lake Tapps and future municipal suppliers.

That’s according to the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, which outlined its disapproval of proposed Lake Tapps water rights in a letter to the state Department of Ecology last week.

Tribal biologists don’t believe the state’s plan would guarantee sufficient water in the river throughout the year to sustain fish protected under the Endangered Species Act. The water rights plan “would result in an unlawful take of listed fish stocks,” the letter states.

“There are serious concerns about flows and diversions that need to be addressed,” Rollin Fatland, a tribal spokesman, said Friday.