OLYMPIA — Legislation shielding 14 environmental groups from being sued if their salmon projects damage private property sailed through the House, but faces stiffer opposition in the Senate.

House Bill 1775 passed the House in February on a 95-2 vote and was to have a hearing Monday before the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee.

The bill would bar lawsuits against the state’s 14 regional fisheries enhancement groups. The groups are private nonprofits, but are sanctioned by the state and receive public funding.

Recent projects have included removing culverts, installing fish passages and putting logjams in rivers to create salmon habitat.

Bill proponents, including the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, say the groups need protection from lawsuits because they can’t afford insurance for multimillion-dollar projects.

“The whole (salmon) restoration world is getting more complex,” Fish and Wildlife habitat program manager Margen Carlson said. “What that means is there is a perception by insurance companies of increased risk.”

Officials from Skagit County, where a project led to a lawsuit by landowners against the Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group, are mobilizing against the bill.

Skagit County senior deputy prosecutor Will Honea said county officials were caught off-guard as the bill moved with little trouble last month through the House.

The legislation would let environmental groups undertake large civil engineering projects, customarily the domain of counties, without being liable for the consequences, he said.

“It’s sort of breathtaking that they wouldn’t be held responsible,” Honea said. “It doesn’t work when a contractor doesn’t have responsibility for project outcomes.

“The insurance market has told you these folks are not a good risk,” he said.

Sen. Keith Wagoner, a Republican who represents eastern Skagit County and is on the agriculture committee, said Friday he will not support HB 1775.

He said he saw the aftermath of logjams breaking loose on a creek in his district and damaging a farm, the incident spawning the lawsuit. Water and gravel covered a hay field, making it unusable, he said.

“It’s an example of what can happen and has happened and the danger of removing liability,” Wagoner said. “It shouldn’t be the landowner left holding the bag.”

Lawmakers could look at insuring fish projects through a state fund and tackle the issue next year, he said.

“I’d like to see this bill die, and we start from scratch and figure out some other way,” Wagoner said.

The bill’s prime sponsor, Rep. Debra Lekanoff, D-Bow, said she introduced the bill because the cost of insurance threatens to stop projects by the fisheries groups.

“We want to make sure these organizations keep their boots on the ground, keep their hands in the dirt,” she said at a House committee hearing.