During turbine passage at a hydroelectric dam on the Columbia River, the possible entrapment of out-migrating salmonid smolts in the gatewell slots of the turbines emergency bulkhead slots is real. It is because of this possible entrapment of smolts that the conducting of manually dipping these gatewell slots and transporting the removed smolts downstream of the dam has been an operational practice for 23 years at Wanapum and Priest Rapids dams. Within the new FERC license issued to the Public Utility District of Grant County, WA for the operation of the Priest Rapids Project, the Utility was to look at the feasibility of installing exclusion screens that would prevent fish from entering into these bulkhead slots. Upon designing ofan exclusion screen, evaluating fish interaction with the screen (via a DIDSON camera) and also conducting smolt retention studies within the gatewell slots themselves –Grant County P.U.D. was not required to install the exclusion screens and along with ending the tradition of gatewell dipping fish at the dams.