U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is visiting Washington on Thursday to promote a traffic improvement project in Wenatchee and a salmon corridor outside Issaquah.
He will announce that the first $196 million of a $1 billion fund to replace fish-blocking road culverts is now available and local and tribal conservation departments can apply for grants next fiscal year.
"With this investment, we're helping protect local economies that count on healthy fisheries and also make key roads less prone to flooding," from the waters of Pacific Northwest to the lowlands of the Southeast, Buttigieg said in a statement. The culvert fund is first of its kind from the federal government, and a small piece of President Joe Biden's $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package.
Buttigieg is scheduled to speak Thursday afternoon next to a tributary of Issaquah Creek, after a morning visit to Wenatchee's Apple Capital Loop, where this March he announced a $92.1 million federal award to rebuild road and rail crossings next to the Columbia River.
He'll make the fish culvert announcement alongside Democratic elected officials including U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, Reps. Kim Schrier and Rick Larsen and local and tribal leaders.
"Salmon travel hundreds of miles to spawn, only to be blocked by barriers within a few miles of pristine habitat. Simply put, culverts are wiping out salmon on the one-yard line," said Cantwell, an ardent supporter of infrastructure grants.
Issaquah and Wenatchee are both within the vast 8th Congressional District, where Schrier faces a reelection challenge from GOP primary winner Matt Larkin. Murray is also campaigning, against Republican Tiffany Smiley of Pasco.
