News Release
| Release Number: | 99-040 |
| Dated: | 4/30/1999 |
| Contact: | Public Affairs Office, 503-808-4510 |
Portland, Ore. -- A $62 million juvenile bypass system improvement project at Bonneville Lock and Dam on the Columbia River 40 miles east of Portland, Ore., is expected to increase juvenile survival through Bonneville by 6 percent to 15 percent.
You are invited to come view the entire project, including the outfall flume that carries fish two miles downriver from the second powerhouse, at 10 a.m. Thursday, May 6, 1999.
Avian predation problems reported recently are being solved. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is finishing installation of the planned water cannon to drive the birds away. The new bypass system is benefiting fish right now. The first juvenile fish moved through the juvenile bypass system and outfalls in March. Initial assessments of the new outfall system by National Marine Fisheries Service show positive results. Fish move through the system with little or no injury.
Come see the project and learn about it firsthand. Please meet us at the Bonneville Project Office (take exit 40 from I-84) at 10 a.m.. Media representatives should wear sturdy shoes. Please call the Portland District, Public Affairs Office, (503) 808-4510, by noon Wednesday, May 5, to sign up for the media tour.
We will go from the project office to a vantage point on the Oregon shore, where you will be able to capture the entire outfall on film. We'll briefly outline the bypass project, and the other actions that are underway at Bonneville to help migrating juvenile salmon, then drive across the dam to the second powerhouse.
On the Washington shore, we'll take you into the downstream migrant channel that runs beneath the second powerhouse, and show you the improvements made to increase juvenile fish survival through the bypass. From there it's about a two-mile drive to the end of the outfall flume and the temporary monitoring facility that will help biologists and engineers understand what is happening to fish coming downriver, and how we may need to change the system to help them through it.
The bypass project was required under the 1995 National Marine Fisheries Service' Biological Opinion for operation of the Federal Columbia River Federal Power System under the Endangered Species Act. Two regional bodies which establish fisheries priorities, the System Configuration Team (SCT) and the Implementation Team (IT), concur with the project. Both forums include representatives of the NMFS, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Bonneville Power Administration, Bureau of Reclamation, state fish and wildlife agencies of Oregon, Washington and Idaho, Northwest Power Planning Council and the Corps. Tribal members withdrew from the SCT and IT in mid-1997.
The project includes physical modifications to juvenile fish passageways within the second powerhouse, a new juvenile bypass outfall flume about two miles long, a smolt monitoring facility, and a new outfall structure in the river.
This action is one of many being undertaken by the Corps to improve fish passage at its Columbia and Snake River dams. The Corps continues to work with its regional partners - government, public and private - to preserve the valuable fish runs on the Columbia and Snake rivers.