Photo: Saberwyn
Fish protections, irrigator access and hydro power generation are chief among the concerns at the mid-Columbia River’s Wanapum Dam, where on Feb. 27 a 65-foot long horizontal crack was discovered at one of the facility’s 12 spillways.
Fish biologists, engineers, and stakeholders are developing plans to modify the two fish ladders at Wanapum Dam to allow migrating salmon and steelhead to safely pass the dam when the adult spring Chinook salmon run begins in mid-April. Over the course of the spring, summer and fall, Chinook, coho and sockeye salmon, steelhead, bull trout, lamprey, shad and other fish species pass over the dam. Wild spring Chinook and steelhead stocks, as well as bull trout, are protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Such ladder fixes could include the installation of a water pumping system to feed the ladders and potentially some sort of slide to ease the fishes’ exit into the Wanapum pool.
The utility is also evaluating plans for capturing and transporting adult fish around the reservoir.
LINK (via: The Dalles Chronicle)