Lolo Creek Permanent Weir and Fish Trapping Facility (DOE/EA-1895)

Clearwater County, Idaho

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) is proposing to fund the replacement of an existing ten-year-old seasonal fish weir with a permanent weir designed to operate safely over a range of flows. A weir is a fence or other structure placed across the creek to block passage for the purpose of catching and retaining fish. The weir will be used to monitor federally-listed Snake River steelhead and for the collection of spring Chinook salmon adults to support on-going supplementation programs in the watershed. Due to icing in the winter and high flows in the spring, the existing seasonal weir cannot be safely deployed during the typical adult steelhead migration period. After construction, the Nez Perce tribe would operate and maintain the weir.

Lolo Creek has been preliminarily determined to be suitable for Congressional designation into the Wild and Scenic (W&S) River system, and is considered one of the best whitewater kayaking runs in Idaho. As such, the proposed permanent weir would be designed to maintain the free-flowing nature of Lolo Creek, and the site would be developed to accommodate safe use of the site by kayakers.

CURRENT STATUS

In 2013, after conferring with National Marine Fisheries Service, existing PIT Tag Array systems are determined to be sufficient to fulfill information needs regarding B-run steelhead. Therefore BPA has decided to no longer pursue the proposed project and considers its NEPA review process complete.

CONTACT

For environmental information, contact:
Dan Gambetta Toll-free: 800-622-4519
Environmental Protection Specialist Direct line: 503-230-3493
Bonneville Power Administration - ECF-4 Email: dagambetta@bpa.gov 
P.O. Box 3621
Portland, OR 97208-3621 Toll-free

DOCUMENTS

PRELIMINARY EA
Preliminary EA comments received
Public Letter (01/29/2013)
Comment Form (01/29/2013)
Preliminary EA (01/29/2013)

SCOPING
Scoping comments received
Public Letter - updated (10/31/2011)
Comment Form - updated (10/31/2011)
Public Letter (09/29/2011)
Comment Form (09/29/2011)
Project Map (September 2011)