Water spills from a fish bypass tube at Rocky Reach Dam. The Chelan County PUD will tag yearling Chinook at Rocky Reach Dam to measure survival, starting in mid-April, in the first confirmation survival study for the project, the PUD announced Monday.
Water spills from a fish bypass tube at Rocky Reach Dam. The Chelan County PUD will tag yearling Chinook at Rocky Reach Dam to measure survival, starting in mid-April, in the first confirmation survival study for the project, the PUD announced Monday.
World file photo/Kelly Gillin
Rocky Reach Dam, a source for clean and renewable energy, is owned by the Chelan County PUD.
WENATCHEE — Chelan County PUD will tag yearling Chinook at Rocky Reach Dam to measure survival, starting in mid-April, in the first confirmation survival study for the project, the PUD announced Monday.
The project, which is work designated through the Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP), is operating on a budget up to $1.4 million, according to Lance Keller, PUD senior fisheries biologist. Roughly 1,200 tagged Chinook will be released in the first confirmation survival study for Rocky Reach, Keller said.
The PUD studied and met the survival standards at the Rocky Reach Project from 2003-2011 for spring-migrating juvenile salmon and steelhead, Keller wrote in an email. Keller added Chelan PUD was scheduled to conduct the first 10-year Confirmation Survival Study in 2021, but due to COVID restrictions and ongoing maintenance, the study was stalled.
“We’ll get a really good resolution as those fish pass Rocky Reach and we can actually have all fish in the forebay of Rocky Reach simultaneously and detect every single tag every three seconds,” Keller said at the meeting. “So really, really cool technology.”
Juvenile Salmon Acoustic Telemetry System (JSATS) tags, roughly .21 grams, are used on the fish and are battery-powered tracking devices. The tags are estimated to have a 45-day life span for usage, however, “We did use this tag at Rock Island (Dam) and got about 74 days of battery life,” Keller said.
The PUD will have a dive team start installing detection equipment in February, the study will run from mid-April to May. Preliminary results are expected by June or July.
“Part of the (HCP) requirements do require us to evaluate project survival for Chinook, steelhead, and sockeye,” Keller said. “We are obligated to measure survival… of the Rocky Reach Dam and Rock Island Dam.”
HCP bonds both the Chelan County PUD, as well as Douglas County PUD, to a program that spans 50 years to ensure hydro projects have no net impact on mid-Columbia salmon and steelhead runs, as the Wenatchee World reported here: bit.ly/3H52N5o.
Chelan County PUD has implemented no net impact plans for Rocky Reach Dam and Rock Island Dam, while Douglas County PUD has plans for the Wells Hydroelectric Project. Survival standard is an element in the HCP agreement.
The survival standard is to achieve a combined adult and juvenile survival of 91% for both Rocky Reach Dam and Rock Island Dam, Keller said. The PUD measured yearling Chinook for juveniles and spring Chinook for adults at Rock Island Dam in 2021 and surpassed the 91% objective, recording a roughly 94% survival rate.
“If the results meet or exceed the combined adult-juvenile standard of 91% survival, the next study would be in 10 years/2033,” Keller wrote.
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