PUD announces high salmon runs

Power council lauds district efforts

EPHRATA — Salmon and steelhead runs in the Northwest are high once again, with the Grant County PUD reporting over 239,749 fish counted at

Priest Rapids Dam already this year.

"By the end of the season, we expect to have counted more than 300,000 fish," Stephen Brown, director of natural resources for PUD, said

in a news release.

At the Sept. 8 meeting of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, Joe Lukas, assistant general manager for Grant PUD, presented

the results of operations this spring for protection of Hanford Reach fall Chinook salmon.

His efforts, it seems, were well-received.

"It's really exciting to see Grant PUD making this commitment to salmon," Larry Cassidy, Washington state member of the council, said in the news release. "The efforts of the local PUDs are paramount to the success of salmon and steelhead recovery."

The fish counts include both hatchery and wild salmon that pass through the dam, Lukas said.

Earlier this year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration proposed a plan to include hatchery fish to determine a species can be

removed from the federal endangered-species list.

The tally at Priest Rapids, Lukas said, has little to do with that issue because no one can tell the difference between hatchery and wild salmon at first glance.

Consequently, he said, most fish counts include both types of fish.

Under a new agreement signed this spring which expands the existing Vernita Bar agreement, the PUD's flow-management program is aimed at preventing stranding of young fish as they begin their migration to the ocean. Flow targets were met 97 percent of the time during the spring rearing period, according to the news release.

While noting the improvements in virtually every Northwest wild and hatchery salmon and steelhead population, on Sept. 9, NOAA released a draft of its revised salmon plan for federal dams.

The federal draft biological opinion calls for upgrades to fish passage facilities at federal hydroelectric dams, aggressive predator controls and

improved harvest and hatchery practices to protect ESA-listed salmon populations.

Earlier this year, NOAA Fisheries concluded its consultation on Grant PUD's future requirements for protection of threatened and endangered

species.

NOAA's draft biological opinion for Grant PUD calls for new downstream fish passage facilities, replacement of the turbines at Wanapum Dam with advanced models designed to improve juvenile survival, aggressive monitoring and evaluation, predator controls, funding for habitat protection and hatcheries designed to protect naturally spawning populations.