Low Head Dam on the Klickitat will NOT be fixed with Hatchery Improvements
BPA is funding updates to the Yakama Fish Hatchery, which has been operating with facilities built 75 years ago. That means we ratepayers are providing the $75 million for the updates. BPA is honoring a commitment made in 2008 to mitigate the impacts of the Federal Columbia River Power System on fish and wildlife in the mainstem Columbia River and its tributaries.
The point of the modernization is to increase the salmon output of the hatchery, and to integrate "natural-origin broodstock" as opposed to growing only hatchery-raised fish. In particular they'd like to boost the spring Chinook population by increasing juvenile production from 600,000 to 800,000 anually. They also grow fall Chinook and late-run coho salmon.
The updates are supposed to be complete by June 2026, and the first yearlings will be released from the improved facilities in May 2027. The BPA-funded modernization will update the spawning and adult holding infrastructure, water intakes, pumping and discharge systems, pollution abatement system, build circular rearing tanks and a chemical storage building.
The modernization includes an update to the existing fish ladder to help fish go upstream past a Low Head Dam that is part of the Hatchery infrastructure. If they're out there fixing the fish ladder, they could also create a safe passage for boaters, or at least a reasonable portage route. We rate lower than salmon in this ecosystem.
Over the past 50 years, low-head dams have claimed more than 1,400 lives. American Whitewater’s accident database documents that 10% of whitewater fatalities nationwide are a result of people getting trapped in a low-head dam hydraulic. Many of the dead are would-be rescuers. Until recently nobody paid much attention to these hazards nor educated the public about them. Newspaper articles about the drownings demonstrate that lack of understanding.
Low head dam on the Klickitat, at the Yakama Fish Hatchery, photo by Teresa Gryder.
There was an expensive but not lethal incident at a Low-Head Dam on the Yakima River on May 5 this year. A rescue boat worth $72,000 was sunk while attempting to rescue a couple of rafters. Those who understand Drowning Machines know that the incident was not a "freak accident". Low-Head Dams are consistent about grabbing things that float and sinking things that don't. The Wanawish Dam, where the rescue boat was sunk, was built for irrigation in 1892, then rebuilt as a rock-filled timber crib dam in 1908, and rebuilt again using concrete in 1997. After all of these rebuilds the hazard is still there. We can do better. The Yakama Nation still uses it as a fishing site using scaffolds. It is off Highway 240 near the Hanford nuclear site.
Whitewater paddlers understand the hazard of Low Head Dams better than most, and we can push for public safety at these sites. A 29 year old woman died at the Klickitat Hatchery Dam in June 2023. Signage and a boater bypass might have saved her life.
American Whitewater's amazing Thomas O'Keefe got language inserted into the Water Resources Development Act of 2024 (which passed) that improves their National Dam Safety Program by adding a Low-Head Dam Inventory. Once these dams are inventoried, they become part of the public safety equation. The WRDA 2024 bill makes funding available funding for the Corps to work on the inventory and for potential removal and retrofit projects on identified dams.
