Conservation and environmental stewardship are essential in the PUD's overall mission to provide our customers with high-quality, reliable, and affordable utility services.

Working Together to Protect Fisheries Resources

The Skagit River and its tributaries have some of the healthiest salmon runs in the Northwest and form the only stream system in Washington to support all five Pacific Northwest salmon species, bull trout, and steelhead.

Skagit PUD participates in local watershed management and planning efforts to protect in-stream flows necessary to maintain salmon spawning and rearing habitat while ensuring adequate water to meet our customers’ current and future demands.

In 1996, the PUD entered into a memorandum of agreement with the city of Anacortes, Skagit County, the Swinomish, Sauk-Suiattle and Upper Skagit Indian tribes, the Department of Ecology, and the Department of Fish and Wildlife, that provides for coordinated water-resource management for the next 50 years and ensures minimum in-stream flows to protect fish habitat.

In 2009, we doubled our water filter plant's capacity at Judy Reservoir to address our area’s growing and changing needs. Along with this expansion, the PUD constructed a pumping station on the Skagit River to augment flows from four Cultus Mountains streams, previously the primary source for our water supply. Pulling water from the Skagit enables us to fill Judy Reservoir when fish protection requirements limit diversions from the streams.

With its five 900-horsepower engines, the pumping station can deliver up to 36 million gallons daily from the river to Judy Reservoir. It ensures sufficient water meets projected demands for the next 40 years.

Related Stewardship Information

• Cultus Mountain Watershed Management Plan – 2021
• Skagit River Watershed Control Plan – 2010