News Release
| Release Number: | 98-082 |
| Dated: | 9/29/1998 |
| Contact: | Public Affairs Office, 503-808-4510 |
Portland, Ore. -- The Washington Shore Visitor Complex at the Bonneville Lock and Dam, 40 miles east of Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash., on the Columbia River, will close to the public for several months beginning Oct. 19, 1998. The visitor facilities will reopen about April 1, 1999.
The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, which constructed and operates Bonneville Lock and Dam, is improving the juvenile fish bypass system inside the Bonneville second powerhouse and relocating the downstream exit (outfall) where fish re-enter the river. Construction work on that project will extend into visitor areas so the visitor facilities must be shut down to assure public safety.
The bypass improvements and outfall relocation were directed by the National Marine Fisheries Service in their 1995 Biological Opinion for Operation of the Federal Columbia River Power System under the Endangered Species Act. Relocating the outfall will make it possible to release juvenile salmon in swifter water, thus reducing predation by pikeminnows and other fish.
Visitor facilities on the Oregon side of Bonneville Lock and Dam will remain open. The Bradford Island Visitor Center and the Navigation Lock Visitor Center will be open from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. every day except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. The Bonneville Fish Hatchery is also open as usual.
For more information, contact the visitor center at (541) 374-8820.