Upper Sultan River (WA) Releases Scheduled Sept. 12th

Snohomish PUD will be releasing flows from Culmback Dam on the Upper Sultan River on Saturday, September 12th, providing an opportunity for whitewater recreation. The flows are required under the hydropower project’s license to benefit the overall health of the river and aid the upstream migration of adult salmon. These flows have been required in recent years, and beginning in 2015, began to be scheduled on a weekend with advance notice to allow whitewater paddlers to take advantage of the opportunity.
 
Paddlers need to sign up in advance on Snohomish PUD's whitewater recreation webpage. You'll also be able to see video clips of the various river reaches here.

The release will begin at 9:30 a.m. and last for 6 hours. Flows are set for 400 cfs. See this page for conditions at the Jackson Project and contact information if you have questions for Snohomish PUD.
 
Those who want to experience this place need to have solid Class IV creeking experience. The gorge is extremely remote with limited access and wood hazards. Please approach the run with caution. If you are unsure of your abilities, it would be best to make the run with someone who went last Spring.  

 
History on How We Got Here
 
After the enlargement of Culmback Dam in 1984, whitewater recreation on the Upper Sultan River largely ceased. Old timers would tell tales of epic trips and once every few years the reservoir would fill overtopping the spillways to create a spectacular class IV whitewater run through an 11 mile gorge. As early as 1980, the Washington Kayak Club advocated for accommodations for whitewater recreation as mitigation for enlargement of the dam, but these requests were ignored as the utility instead focused on reservoir-based recreation and such events as the International Electric Boat Regatta (combustion engines are prohibited because the reservoir serves as a municipal water supply).
 
Over the years American Whitewater advocated for a recreation plan that included whitewater boating, and our opportunity came with the start of the relicensing process for their hydropower project that began in 2004. While Snohomish PUD was initially reluctant to address whitewater recreation, a couple dozen boaters made a strong showing at the first public meeting greatly outnumbering all other interest who attended. Federal regulators took notice and wrote to the utility in the spring of 2006:
 
Project operations affect flows in an 11-mile-long reach of the Sultan River that could be used for whitewater boating if sufficient flows were available. After reviewing the information presented in the Pre-Application Document and the comments provided during the February 27 and 28 scoping meetings, we have identified a gap between existing information and the information needed to conduct the required analysis. We need to know the range of flows that would provide whitewater boating opportunities in the project bypassed reach of the Sultan River.
 
With this encouragement from federal regulators and the constant presence of local volunteer Andy Bridge at dozens of meetings, Snohomish PUD ultimately accepted that we weren’t going to disappear and a spirit of collaboration slowly began to build. On a rainy weekend in October 2007, Snohomish PUD held the whitewater flow study and while we had 15 formal participants as outlined in the study plan, boaters have a pretty good nose for a unique opportunity, and plenty more came out to enjoy the experience of the study releases from Culmback Dam.
 
With the data in hand, and after a couple more years of meetings, our discussions ultimately culminated in a settlement agreement in October 2009 with the utility, resource agencies and tribe. Working together we developed one of the more innovative flow regimes for any project we have worked on. The flows provide attraction flows for returning salmon, outmigration flows for juvenile salmon, and a whole range of process flows—flushing, channel maintenance, and channel forming—to benefit overall river health. Using techniques from the social sciences and our data from the recreational flow study, we were able to overlay these ecosystem needs with recreational flow needs to develop a plan to benefit all interests: hydropower generation, municipal water supply, salmon and resident fish, and whitewater recreation.
 
Some more time was required for federal regulators to review the whole agreement and a license was issued in September 2011. The first requirement before the utility could offer recreational opportunities was construction of a new trail into the Sultan River Gorge. Some may remember climbing down an informal social trail used by miners that was steep and badly eroded as it crossed over and under logs and down steep eroded clay banks. The trail was finally completed in the summer of 2014 and meets Forest Service trail standards. It is still a walk into the gorge but it is now much easier.