WDFW Fined $86,400 For Nisqually Smolt Trap Accident

The Washington Department of Labor & Industries has fined WDFW $86,400 for a previously undisclosed accident on the Nisqually River last winter that sent a scientific tech to the hospital after he hit his head on the underside of a smolt trap when the boat he was in capsized.

The accident occurred February 23 on the river near Yelm as two agency staffers were “returning to the smolt trap after releasing marked pink salmon upstream as part of the smolt monitoring project,” according to a WDFW statement.

We’ve filed a PDR to learn more about what happened, but the incident first came to light through an L&I press release yesterday that summarized over $200,000 in fines the state was levying against WDFW for four violations associated with the Nisqually incident and nine for the January 24 drowning death of scientific tech Mary Valentine, 48, at a Duckabush River trap.

WDFW’s 13 total violations in the two cases are described as “willful” by L&I.

“A violation is classified as willful when an employer knew or should have known the safety requirements, but did not follow them,” Labor & Industries states. “The L&I investigations found that training programs did not exist or were not implemented across WDFW, and employees were not provided the necessary training they needed for their work in outdoor environments.”

Smolt trapping is done annually to monitor how many young salmon and steelhead are outmigrating from systems around the state. Fish are captured when they swim into a rotating drum that is set up on pontoons stationed near shore. They are held in a livewell until someone comes along to check on them and tag or release them to continue their journey. The rivers the traps operate on are subject to high, cold fall, winter and spring flows and debris such as logs drifting down them.

According to L&I, WDFW violations in the Nisqually and Duckabush incidents also included “not providing or requiring the use of approved personal flotation devices, using rigging and straps that were damaged or improperly put together, and not providing training for the use of chainsaws.”

Valentine was the second WDFW staffer to die while working on a river in just six months.

Last September, 31-year-old fisheries biologist Erin Peterson died after becoming “entrapped” during a snorkel survey of the Wind River. In March, WDFW was fined $30,800 for that incident “for inadequate field communications and not ensuring workers were wearing approved personal flotation devices,” according to L&I, and required the agency to correct them.

In July, WDFW was fined $114,000 for the Duckabush incident and ordered to correct another slate of issues.

With this new fine for the Nisqually accident, WDFW has now been ordered to pay L&I at least $231,200 this year for water-related incidents. Collected fines “go into the workers’ compensation supplemental pension fund, helping injured workers and families of those who have died on the job,” per L&I.

“We’re saddened by the loss of our fellow state workers,” Craig Blackwood, assistant director for L&I’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, said in his agency’s press release. “Employers have the duty to make sure workers recognize the hazards of their job and what they need to do to protect themselves. We hope these investigations help Fish and Wildlife to ensure a culture where all workers are trained to stay safe.”

In a statement on the Nisqually and Duckabush citations, WDFW Director Kelly Susewind said, “We are in the middle of changes necessary for a robust safety culture and continue to invest in staff safety.”

In early February, shortly after Valentine’s late January death, an L&I inspection led WDFW to announce a voluntary stand down of nearly all work around water to hold four mandatory training sessions on the use and inspection of PFDs for all staffers who “work in, on, or adjacent to water.” The Nisqually accident happened three weeks later.