Reclamation Managing Water in the West: Physical, Chemical, and Biological Characteristics of Cle Elum and Bumping Lakes in the Upper Yakima River Basin Storage Dam Fish Passage Study Yakima Project, Washington. Technical Series No. PN-YDFP-005

摘要

As part of the Safety of Dams rehabilitation of Keechelus Dam on the Upper Yakima River in Washington State, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) entered into an agreement with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to assess the feasibility of providing upstream adult and downstream juvenile passage for extirpated anadromous salmonids at its five water storage projects in the Yakima River Basin, to eventually restore anadromous salmonid runs to suitable habitats upstream from the dams. Fish passage was also desired to restore connectivity of the regions bull trout populations. The 2001 agreement was based on a need to correct some safety concerns at Keechelus Dam on the upper Yakima River. An interagency core team lead by Reclamation was established to assess the feasibility of providing fish passage at all five water storage projects. State and tribal fisheries co-managers are developing a plan for the eventual phased reintroduction of sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka), coho salmon (O. kisutch), Chinook salmon (O. tshawytscha), and steelhead (O. mykiss) above the dams. Interim juvenile fish passage facilities completed at Cle Elum Lake in spring 2005 are testing the ability of juvenile fish to locate the passage facilitiy and exit the reservoir.