Icicle Creek Restoration

Icicle Creek - Washington's Wilderness Jewel

Icicle Creek starts high in the spectacular Stuart Range and Alpine Lakes Wilderness, ultimately joining the Wenatchee River near Leavenworth, Washington. It drains 216 square miles of alpine, forest, meadow, and scrub habitats, most of it National Forest land and much of that designated wilderness.

What could be amiss with a stream that drains mostly Wilderness area? Icicle Creek carries a special burden. The Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery (LNFH) is located a few miles upstream from the mouth, and since 1940 it has been responsible for unacceptable impacts to Icicle Creek. The Hatchery:

• Deliberately Blocks wild salmon, trout, and char from miles of Wilderness aquatic and riparian habitats in the upper Icicle Basin at three different dams
• Diverts water from the stream into a "diversion canal" without a valid water right
• Withdraws water through an unscreened intake, sucking fish into the facility
• Pollutes Icicle Creek with water warmer than state standards and containing excess plant nutrients, causing additonal downstream water quality problems.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service, operates the LNFH, with funding from the Bureau of Reclamation.   Built to “mitigate” the blockage caused by Grand Coulee Dam, the LNFH itself contributes to the same problem, as it blocks wild fish from their habitat. For almost seventy years the fish-passage barriers at LNFH, less than three miles from the mouth of Icicle Creek, have isolated wild salmon, steelhead, and bull trout from the largely pristine upper Icicle basin.

Near the end of 1997, Wild Fish Conservancy (then Washington Trout) began working with the Icicle Creek Watershed Council and other members of the Leavenworth community to effect full, year-round wild-fish passage at the hatchery. For almost twelve years, we have been urging the USFWS to make changes at LNFH that would contribute to the recovery of listed fish in Icicle Creek, and that would end violations of the ESA and Clean Water Act.

After years of delay and broken promises, we filed suit under the ESA and the CWA in June 2005 (LNFH ESA Complaint;LNFH CWA Complaint).  Our goals were the restoration of fish passage and other ecological functions in the natural stream channel, and the end of illegal water diversions from, and effluent discharges into, Icicle Creek.

The lawsuits got the government's attention and a few improvements in conditions on Icicle Creek were made. USFWS increased natural stream flow into a one-mile reach of the historical channel of Icicle Creek directly adjacent to the LNFH. The restored flow is triggering the restoration of habitats gone fallow from years of isolation and represents one of the first steps in the restoration of the ecology of the Icicle Creek basin (read more in the 2006 Washington Trout Report article).

In 2006, the government agreed to issue a final wastewater discharge permit by November 30, 2006 (NDPES Comments).  EPA prepared a permit in November 2006, but before it can be finalized, the Washington Department of Ecology can impose “conditions” on the permit, outlining provisions for maintaining adequate fish passage, instream flows, and other state water-quality standards, a process called “Clean Water Act certification.”  Ecology's draft certification has been and is available here. We have already made extensive comments to Ecology on the "certification" (Section 401 Comments). Click here for Wild Fish Conservancy's action alert and here for a sample comment letter to Ecology.

Our ESA case is currently on appeal with the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit as we maintain the LNFH continues to unacceptably harm bull trout by blocking fish passage at exactly the time of year they need to migrate past the Hatchery.  Discussions that began in the summer of 2006 on restoration of Icicle Creek and infrastructure needs of the Hatchery continue, and an Environmental Impact Statement on at least some aspects may be released as soon as the fall of 2009.

Our advocacy efforts have opened the door to a research effort on Icicle Creek and we also work with local teachers on ecological education.  Read about Wild Fish Conservancy’s Icicle Creek Recolonization Study and our education efforts through the Icicle Creek Partnership.