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The City of Seattle (City) has prepared a multi-species Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) to comply with the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA: 16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) and to address a variety of related natural resource issues. The plan will cover the City’s 90,545-acre Cedar River Municipal Watershed and the City’s water supply and hydroelectric operations on the Cedar River, which discharges into Lake Washington. In general, the City’s HCP is not an HCP for planned development, but rather it is a set of mitigation and conservation commitments related to ongoing water supply, hydroelectric power supply, and watershed management activities.

The HCP is based on a decade of studies and the results of over 5 years of analysis and negotiations with five state and federal agencies as documented in an Agreement in Principle, dated March 14, 1997. The Agreement in Principle addresses not only issues under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) but also related issues under state law and tribal treaties, and issues with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE). The ACOE manages lake levels in Lake Washington, and navigational traffic between Lake Washington and Puget Sound, through operation of the Hiram Chittenden Locks (Ballard Locks) and Lake Washington Ship Canal.

The City’s commitments regarding these related issues are included in and are part of this HCP and associated Implementation Agreement (Appendix 1), and the agreements with other agencies are represented in the related draft Instream Flow Agreement and draft Landsburg Mitigation Agreement, which are Appendices 27 and 28 of this HCP, respectively. The Instream Flow Agreement covers minimum and supplemental instream flows, operation of an instream flow commission, supplementation of minimum flows, and water conservation improvements at the Ballard Locks. The Landsburg Mitigation Agreement covers mitigation for the blockage to anadromous fish posed by the Landsburg Diversion Dam, where the City diverts water for municipal and industrial supply, as well as the effects of the intake structure.

The Instream Flow Agreement and the Landsburg Mitigation Agreement are intended to resolve issues about river flows and fish passage at Landsburg related to a variety of interests of the different signatory parties in addition to the ESA.

Although the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe (the Tribe) has not signed any of the agreements related to the HCP, the City attempted to address many of the issues raised by the Tribe during negotiations, and the Tribe participated in the development of the proposed instream flows and mitigation for the Landsburg blockage to fish. The City and Services continue to seek the Tribe’s agreement on issues related to instream flows and the blockage to fish passage posed by the City’s Landsburg Diversion Dam.