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There’s a new development in the decades-long tug-of-war between the City of Edmonds, the State Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW), environmental groups and adjacent property owners to balance flood control and fish passage on lower Perrinville Creek. The DFW has issued a limited temporary permit to allow the City of Edmonds to clear accumulated debris from the city’s existing sediment trap/overflow structures, with the aim of mitigating potential flooding during the upcoming rainy season. The permit expires on Jan. 13, 2026, and work must be completed by that time.
The permit language specifically excludes maintenance or modification of these structures, the bypass pipes or streambed. It authorizes “only the work necessary to address the expedited condition, which includes: the clearing of sediment, debris (small branches, leaves, etc.), and garbage on or within the sediment trap/overflow structure) and upstream within the City’s right of way with the use of hand-held tools (i.e. shovels and rakes).”
The permit further clarifies that it is being issued “as an expedited HPA [hydraulic project approval] due to imminent danger (defined as a threat by weather, water flow or other natural conditions that are likely to occur within 60 days…), which in this case is the high likelihood of flooding that will negatively impact the surrounding infrastructure.” (Read the full permit document here).
Edmonds Deputy Director of Public Works and Utilities/City Engineer Mike DeLilla clarified that this is not part of a plan to address the larger issue of balancing flood control and fish passage. Rather, it is a stopgap measure to mitigate potential flooding in advance of the upcoming rainy season.
“The permit was received Friday, and work began immediately to remove debris due to the upcoming rain and residents’ concerns about potential flooding,” De Lilla explained in an email to My Edmonds News. “If more debris builds up while we have the permit, we can go back out if necessary. We want to make it clear; sediment deposition and debris are what drives the City’s and Department of Fish and Wildlife’s decision-making process around mitigation.”
Local independent engineer Bill Lider has been following the Perrinville Creek situation for 40 years.
Lider explained that in the mid-1980s, the city permitted homes to be built in the Perrinville Creek flood plain, and these permits called for constructing a dike to protect the houses from flooding. But the dike was never built; instead, the homeowners routed the creek right up next to their homes, creating a “lovely English garden, where you can look out your bedroom window and see the salmon spawning up the creek,” Lider said.
But when it rains, “Perrinville Creek gets angry from time to time,” and carries significant debris and sediment down from the South County Park area toward Puget Sound, creating a flooding danger for the homeowners, he explained.
In response, the city built the two sediment trap/overflow boxes, which blocked the sediment transport downstream. “And so now the city has to go out there, pretty much constantly, and excavate the sediment out, otherwise it would overwhelm the diversion system,” he said.
But flooding is not the only issue in play at Perrinville Creek.
Edmonds environmentalist Joe Scordino is passionate about enhancing salmon habitat and restoring wild salmon runs to local streams. He and others in the local environmental community are very concerned about how the diversion structures impede fish passage at Perrinville Creek.
Scordino sees these as “fish killers” that were improperly permitted, and believes that subsequent modifications to the diversion structures have made them impassable for fish, blocking their passage and eliminating the habitat that allowed fish to move between the creek and Puget Sound.
“By redirecting the flow entirely into the overflow structures and blocking off sections of the creek, the city has prevented salmon from returning to their habitat, resulting in significant harm to fish passage,” he said.
Scordino is concerned that the new permit’s scope is confusing and ambiguous, and might leave the door open for more extensive work on the diversion structures than the permit allows.
“While it explicitly limits work to cleaning inside and on the overflow structures — using only hand tools and forbidding the use of heavy equipment – I am skeptical about the city’s possible misinterpretation of the permit,” he said, adding that he intends to seek further clarification from the Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Overall, Scordino’s opinion is that the permit is not clear and could be misapplied, and he does not fully support the process or its communication.
Like City Engineer DeLilla, both Scordino and Lider see the current permit to clear debris as merely a stop-gap, temporary measure that does not address the underlying, long-term issues facing Perrinville Creek.
For more information and background on Perrinville Creek, see My Edmonds News earlier stories:
July 15, 2025 – Edmonds Environmental Council file complaint against city regarding fish passage at Perrinville Creek
Jan. 27, 2025 – City begins geotechnical exploration as part of Lower Perrinville Creek Restoration project
Oct. 15, 2024 – Larsen briefed by officials on plans to improve fish passage, reduce flooding on Perrinville Creek
Apr. 28, 2024 – Salmon fry released into upper Perrinville Creek
It’s now too late to save this year’s run of coho salmon from the upper Perrinville Creek salmon recovery project. The returning adult salmon would already have tried to enter Perrinville Creek’s attraction water coming out of the City’s pipe and either died or injured themselves trying to get past the impassible situation the City has created.
It is a travesty that the City could have prevented this by just re-opening the creek that they illegally blocked in 2021. This could have been done while maintaining their diversion structures to prevent flooding – these are not mutually exclusive!
The current City Administration’s disregard for the larger regional effort to restore salmon populations and our natural environment is disconcerting to say the least. And I can only wonder why WDFW is allowing continuation of an illegal fish-blocking activity at Perrinville Creek.
It is amazing that WDFW allows this!
It’s amazing how Council does not listen to Citizens on this topic. In 2022 the city provided a grant to WRIA 8 for a design for opening up the stream. The Grant committee could not provide the funding because of limited funds that year, but told the city to reapply in 2023. This nearshore estuary is needed for salmon spawning and migrate up the waterways to Everett.
Despite my prompting while on Council, and as a member of the Grant funding committee of WRIA 8, nothing was or has been done. Now Council wants to hire a full-time Grant writer which seems like an expensive FTE request since the current grant is already written and all is needed is updates of dates and creek status which includes the City’s ILA with the homeowners.
Let’s not forget that Mr. Bernhoft filed an appeal against the City as the SEPA documents were incomplete. After five days of testimony which the City had to pay for the hearing examiner, the director of Public Works (who made $300,000 in one year), staff, and expert witnesses – the hearing examiner remanded the SEPA documents back to the City; and rather than complete the SEPA documents, they file this expedited HPA permit.
Where is the oversight of Council on this debacle?
This was once a valuable salmon safe stream.
Jo, thank you for advocating for the salmon and environment. I’m amazed that development was allowed in that area. I have hiked in the creek area and to build houses on a flood plain without redirecting run off with a dike amazes me. Is who ever made that decision not responsible? And all the time and resources that took place to grow salmon at the hatchery only to be killed doesn’t make any sense. I remember reading about a lawsuit regarding this problem. What is the status on that and how can community members help? I’m restoring a creek in my neighborhood and it’s amazing how careless past developments have been to local waterways.