News Release
| Release Number: | 99-087 |
| Dated: | 9/29/1999 |
| Contact: | Matt Rabe, 503-808-4510 |
Portland, Ore.--Quick action Monday morning by reservoir regulators and fisheries biologists stopped the exposure of salmon redds and spawning adult salmon near Eugene.
The regulators from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had begun reducing flows from the Fall Creek Dam in preparation for a scheduled inspection of the structure, but reversed their action when two redds, gravel beds used by spawning salmon, and six spawning adult salmon were discovered. Water releases were returned to a higher rate of release - 720 cubic feet per second.
Water releases from the dam were to be temporarily reduced from about 800 cfs to about 200 cfs to allow inspectors access to the stilling basin at the base of the dam. That resulted in a drop of the creek's water level of one-half foot to 1.3 feet.
Conditions in the creek below the dam are not typically favorable for juvenile salmon to rear, according to Corps biologist Bob Magne.
The Corps scheduled the two-day inspection of the dam's stilling basin to determine how some concrete that was replaced last summer is holding up. The inspection was to begin Monday, but has been rescheduled for next year.
"It wasn't critical that we inspect the structure now," said Carolyn Flaherty, dam safety engineer. "We saw an opportunity to look at it this fall, but there is no reason why we can't wait until next spring. Previous inspections of the structure show it to be in good shape."
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, initiating a new management strategy this year released about 90,000 marked hatchery raised smolts below the dam this spring, according to Magne. The department previously released about one million unmarked hatchery fish into Fall Creek reservoir each year, but stopped the practice in 1997, said Magne.
The Corps operates the adult salmon trap at Fall Creek Dam, where the fish are captured and transported above the dam to spawn naturally. Fish releases below Fall Creek Dam are the result of adult salmon trapped at Dexter Dam, on the nearby Middle Fork Willamette River, and spawned artificially by hatchery personnel.