PR 39 05
See Below
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
TUESDAY, April 5, 2005
Contact:
See Below
Spring operations for fish begin on Columbia and Snake rivers
Low water triggers transport of Snake River juvenile salmon
PORTLAND, Ore. -
By: Bonneville Power Administration
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
CONTACT: Mike Hansen, BPA (503) 230-5131
Nola Conway, Corps (509) 527-7019
Brian Gorman, NOAA Fisheries (206) 526-6613
Hydro operations on the Columbia and Snake rivers will meet Endangered Species Act requirements for spill and transportation of juvenile salmon and steelhead under low water conditions this spring and summer, federal officials confirmed today. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bonneville Power Administration and Bureau of Reclamation will operate according to a plan for dry years as set out in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries biological opinion.
"Release of water through spillways will occur at four lower Columbia dams and Ice Harbor Dam on the lower Snake River as prescribed in the biological opinion," said Brig. Gen. William Grisoli, Northwestern Division commander for the Corps. "We will maximize transportation of juvenile fish, with little to no spill at Lower Granite, Little Goose and Lower Monumental dams due to low water in the Snake River."
Spill began on April 4 at Ice Harbor Dam, where a newly installed fish slide, or spillway weir, is being tested. Spill is scheduled to begin at the four lower Columbia River dams (McNary, John Day, The Dalles and Bonneville) on April 10 and will continue through August 31, with the exception of McNary, which will stop spilling sometime near the end of June. Water that is spilled over Columbia and Snake river dams does not generate electricity; it helps move juvenile salmon past dams in their migration to the ocean.
In years when the April-through-June seasonal average flow at Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River is projected to be less than 70 thousand cubic feet per second (kcfs), water is not released through the spillways at Lower Granite, Little Goose and Lower Monumental dams. The majority of the fish are collected at the dams and transported by barge or tanker truck to a point below Bonneville Dam and released into the river. Ice Harbor Dam does not have fish collection facilities. Currently, average flow for this period on the Snake is predicted to be about 50 kcfs.
Under low water conditions, like those the region is experiencing this year, transportation improves adult returns by several fold compared to juveniles migrating in-river, federal officials said.
"Adult returns for the past several years have been very good," said Bob Lohn, regional director of NOAA Fisheries. "Good ocean conditions have helped, of course, but research and our own experience strongly suggest that our approach to salmon recovery is working."
Over the past decade, the transportation effort has collected 11 million to 24 million fish a year, totaling more than 376 million since the program began in 1981. Research has shown that, even though transporting fish past dams poses some biological unknowns, transported fish typically return in greater numbers than those that remain in the river for their journey past the dams.
Submitted for distribution on 04-05-2005 at 12:10 PM
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