PUD begins fish survival study

EPHRATA — Last week the Grant County Public Utility District started its 2006 fish survival study season, when district employees and contractors test Columbia River fish passage at Priest Rapids and Wanapum dams.

This year, the district plans to utilize a helicopter to transport juvenile steelhead and Chinook salmon for placement into the river throughout the entire 56.5 mile length of the Priest Rapids Hydroelectric Project, district spokesman Gary Garnant said.

This 56.5 mile stretch of the Columbia River starts downstream of Wenatchee and flows to a point upstream of the Hanford Reservation.

This is the first year the district has conducted survival studies using juvenile steelhead. To ensure test results are accurate, the district will continue studying the juvenile steelhead again in 2007 and 2008 because water conditions vary from year to year.

In the first study season, nearly 120 helicopter flights will place approximately 3,000 acoustic-tagged fish at various release locations on a daily basis throughout May. Roughly 1,500 Chinook salmon will also be released for behavior studies.

Some of these fish may be released into the river just as it flows out of Chelan County PUD's Rock Island Dam, to test the time it takes for them to reach Wanapum Dam.

Acoustic telemetry has become one of the most effective methods for learning about juvenile fish, Garnant said. The technology works like a global positioning system, he said, and records a test fish's location using three coordinates. A tag, implanted in the fish, emits a pulse that is detected by hydrophones, or receivers, revealing the precise location of fish both up and downstream of the Priest Rapids Project.

"These studies help our scientists gain additional knowledge about fish survival and behavior at project dams," said Stephen Brown, the district's director of Natural Resources. "Grant PUD conducts these tests on an annual basis as part of our ongoing pursuit of more effective measures for the protection, mitigation and enhancement of salmon, steelhead and other resources."

Millions of these fish pass Priest Rapids and Wanapum dams every year, Garnant said. Federal agencies, such as the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service, require the district to study the affects of the Priest Rapids Project on these fish.

"For more than 40 years Grant County PUD has focused considerable time and expense to achieve high levels of safe fish passage at Wanapum and Priest Rapids Dams," Brown said. "Utility biologists and engineers work diligently to craft solutions that increase fish passage efficiency while ensuring adequate power production, preservation of water quality and cost savings to Grant PUD ratepayer-owners."