Rejection of Tribe’s Claims Against Dam Upheld by Ninth Circuit

A tribe’s challenge to a Washington state hydropower facility operating without fish passages was properly dismissed by a lower court because it raises issues addressed in its federal license, an appellate court ruled Friday.

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco affirmed a district court’s denial of the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe’s motion to remand to state court and the district court’s ultimate dismissal of the suit for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under the Federal Power Act.

That law governed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s 1995 order granting the City of Seattle a new license ...