Session A7: A Case Study Highlighting Telemetry Tools: Are Bypass Systems at Wanapum and Priest Rapids Dams Increasing Downstream Smolt Survival on the Columbia River?
Location
Groningen, The Netherlands
Event Website
http://fishpassage.umass.edu/
Start Date
24-6-2015 11:50 AM
End Date
24-6-2015 12:05 PM
Description
Abstract:
In the Pacific Northwest, downstream migration of juvenile salmon on the Columbia River has been impeded since 1933 by the construction of 14 hydropower facilities. Volitional passage of juvenile fish through turbines at these facilities has resulted in direct mortality and indirect mortality from the effects of dams on the surrounding environment. For over three decades, improving fish passage has been a high priority on the mid-Columbia River by the Public Utility District of Grant County. Two unique bypass systems have been designed, built, and installed over the past six years to improve fish passage at Wanapum Dam (2008) and the Priest Rapids Dam (2014). Since 2008, fish passage efficiency studies using acoustic and passive integrated transponder (PIT) systems have shown annual variability at both dams. At Wanapum Dam, up to 77% of the juvenile steelhead passed through the bypass system, which is equal to a 66% reduction in turbine passage; the average between 2008 and 2010 was 71%. At Priest Rapids Dam, results from 2014 have demonstrated that a total of 69% of juvenile steelhead passed through the top-spill bypass and spillway, which was a 19% increase in the average non-turbine passage from previous estimates (2008- 2010). This case study will be presented to highlight the telemetry tools that were used to evaluate the spring migrants that used downstream passage alternatives in the mid-Columbia River during these studies. The results, fish passage behavior, guidance efficiency, and survival at both dams and the associated reservoirs before and after the installation of both bypass systems, will be discussed.
Session A7: A Case Study Highlighting Telemetry Tools: Are Bypass Systems at Wanapum and Priest Rapids Dams Increasing Downstream Smolt Survival on the Columbia River?
Groningen, The Netherlands
Abstract:
In the Pacific Northwest, downstream migration of juvenile salmon on the Columbia River has been impeded since 1933 by the construction of 14 hydropower facilities. Volitional passage of juvenile fish through turbines at these facilities has resulted in direct mortality and indirect mortality from the effects of dams on the surrounding environment. For over three decades, improving fish passage has been a high priority on the mid-Columbia River by the Public Utility District of Grant County. Two unique bypass systems have been designed, built, and installed over the past six years to improve fish passage at Wanapum Dam (2008) and the Priest Rapids Dam (2014). Since 2008, fish passage efficiency studies using acoustic and passive integrated transponder (PIT) systems have shown annual variability at both dams. At Wanapum Dam, up to 77% of the juvenile steelhead passed through the bypass system, which is equal to a 66% reduction in turbine passage; the average between 2008 and 2010 was 71%. At Priest Rapids Dam, results from 2014 have demonstrated that a total of 69% of juvenile steelhead passed through the top-spill bypass and spillway, which was a 19% increase in the average non-turbine passage from previous estimates (2008- 2010). This case study will be presented to highlight the telemetry tools that were used to evaluate the spring migrants that used downstream passage alternatives in the mid-Columbia River during these studies. The results, fish passage behavior, guidance efficiency, and survival at both dams and the associated reservoirs before and after the installation of both bypass systems, will be discussed.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/fishpassage_conference/2015/June24/81
Comments
Presenting Author Bio: Leah Sullivan, M.Sc., has more than 15 years of experience, and has conducted small and large scale biotelemetry fisheries studies. She specializes in the application, personnel management, and analysis/technical reporting of such studies, including the use of acoustic, radio and PIT tag technologies. Leah has developed study plans and budgets, implemented, and overseen studies and data analysis on various migratory species of downstream and upstream migration, timing, and distribution as it is related to hydroelectric projects; project involvement has ranged worldwide, including the Pacific Northwest, U.S. East Coast, New Zealand, and Germany. Leah has experience in gastric and surgical tagging of fishes and is abreast of the most current SOP’s regarding fish handling and tagging procedures; she has overseen all aspects of large and small scale surgical fish tagging operations.