Overview of Cowlitz River and Clackamas River Fish Passage Tours

Tour dates: June 5-6, 2019 and October 4, 2019

7/16/2019, updated 10/16/2019

Location of Cowlitz River and Clackamas River

Cowlitz River Location

Lewis Dam and North Shore Collector, 140 ft tall, run-of river dam owned by Lewis County PUD, but Tacoma Power operates fish collector since their downstream dams block anadromous access

Mayfield Dam, 185 ft tall, Dam owned by Lewis County PUD, but Tacoma Power operates fish collector since their dam is downstream and blocks access. Fish ladder takes adults into a capture facility, and adult spring-run Chinook Salmon are trucked above Lewis Dam

Mossyrock Dam, 605 ft tall, lake is 23 miles long, owned by Tacoma Power

Lewis Dam and North Shore Fish Collector

Lake Scanewa

New juvenile fish collector commissioned in 2017, capital cost=$35 million, annual O&M costs are currently unknown

2017 surface collector

1996 surface collector

Summary of facilities and results• $35 million capital costs, annual O&M currently unknown (will request info)• For 2019, 80% juvenile capture rate for coho and steelhead during non-spill

periods. No guide nets, just 500 cfs pumpback for surface attraction into capture area. Goal is 95% juvenile passage, so still have some work to do

• Two collectorso 1996 collector in center of dam (worked ok for steelhead and coho, but not Chinook since they

are deeper in the water columno 2017 surface collector on right bank with 500 cfs pumped surface attraction flow is much better.

Collector is 15’ deep by 17 ft wide. 500 cfs enters capture facility, 20 cfs leaves after screening fish, and 480 cfs runs through screens & is pumped upstream. Reservoir elevation is very stable

o Juveniles and kelt steelhead trucked and released below Mayfield Dam

• Juveniles that are not captured route downstream into Riffe Lake and do not successfully outmigrate

• Adult spring-run Chinook Salmon trapped at Mayfield Dam are trucked to various locations in the upper Cowlitz Watershed and released within 24 hrs; other species migrate upstream on their own

• No spill for flow<10,500 cfs; thereafter, spill occurs and overall juvenile capture rate decreases (by unknown amount). Reservoir fluctuation is minor (few feet)

Surface Collector facilities

500 cfs pumped attraction flow

Surface collector entrance and secondary trash rack

Surface Collector

Surface Collector facilities

Lateral and inclined fish screens to reduce fish+flow from 500 cfs to 20 cfs

End of flume (20 cfs) steepens to create velocity

barrier against juveniles migrating upstream

Screen cleaning system

Variable bar widths separates fry from smolts from kelts, subsamples for PIT tagging

Complex controls system

Summary of Cowlitz River Juvenile Fish Passage Costs

• Capital Costso Lewis Dam surface collector = $35 million

o Trap and Haul infrastructure = $

• O&M Costso Staff for surface collector

o O&M for surface collector

o Power used

o Staff for trap and haul

o O&M for trap and haul

Total≈$X million

Total≈$X million/year

DAY 2: Clackamas River

Clackamas River Location

River Mill Dam, lowermost dam for project

North Fork Dam, juvenile fish passage facility, upper end of adult fish ladder

From Ackerman 2018

Run-of-River Project127 MW Capacity

3 Dam Complex

Built 1906 – 1958

Dam Heights: 80 – 135 ft (24.3 – 41.2 m)

Mean Daily flow = 1,454 cfs or41 cubic m3/s

Clackamas River Facilities

River Mill Dam, lowermost dam for project, 73 ft tall, adult fish ladder allows fish access to base of Faraday Dam, has juvenile fish passage facility (surface collector with 500 cfs attraction flow), and juvenile pipeline outlet from North Fork Collector

Faraday Diversion Dam, 100 ft tall, adult fish ladder allows fish access over the top of North Fork Dam

North Fork Dam, 120 ft tall, primary juvenile fish capture facility (two surface collectors, one with 250 cfs attraction flow and other with 1,000 cfs attraction flow)

Adult fish ladder over Faraday Dam and North Fork Dam

Juvenile downstream migration pipeline from North Fork Dam to below River Mill Dam (7 miles)

Can recapture/mark juvenile fish at end of pipeline at River Mill Dam

North Fork Dam and Fish Collection Facility

North Fork Reservoir

Floating Surface Collector (new), with 1,000 cfs pumps to

create surface attraction

1958 era juvenile Surface Collector, 250 cfs inflow, similar to Mead and

Hunt design for Scott Dam

Juvenile pipeline on face of dam

Adult wild/hatchery separation facility (hatchery fish trucked downstream,

wild fish allowed to migrate upstream)

Juvenile pipeline (7 cfs)

Adult fish ladder

Pump outlet for juvenile surface attraction

Spillway Exclusion Net

Exclusion Net

North Fork Project

North Fork Fish Ladder

Summary of Facilities and Results• Semi-volitional passage for both adults and juveniles (no direct handling of native fish)• Faraday/NF Fish ladder (1958) is 1.9 miles long, 200 ft elevation gain, drained for maintenance 1X/year• Adult fish ladder at North Fork Reservoir pulls water from 22 ft deep, 32 cfs, and 2°C cooler water helps

attract adults into ladder below Faraday Diversion Dam, speeds adult migration, and enables better spring Chinook distribution into watershed. NF reservoir fluctuation ~2 ft, maximum ~5 ft

• Wild fish allowed to migrate upstream, hatchery fish trucked below River Mill Dam• Adult lamprey passage up fish ladder much poorer (20%).• Juvenile/kelt collector and pipeline takes juveniles downstream 7 miles over 300 ft drop, 7 cfs, water

travel time ~ 1.5 hrs, fish travel time was 2 weeks, now~2.5-3 hours (faster than natural, less mortality)• Steelhead kelt guidance rate for 2016, 2017, 2018 is 74%, 43%, 60% (95% are female)• Subsampling, pit tagging, juvenile counts at end of juvenile pipeline at River Mill Dam• River Mill surface collector (2013) is on face of dam, has 500 cfs attraction flow going into turbines• North Fork floating surface collector (2016) low-head axial pumps create 1,000 cfs attraction flow

through screens on floating barge (constant), fish and flow is reduced to 7 cfs for transport pipeline• North Fork surface collector (1958 vintage) pumps 250 cfs for attraction flow• North Fork Spillway Exclusion Net (50’ deep) used for flows up to 10,000 cfs, reduces fish entrainment

into the turbines by 50% to 80%, was the best bang for the buck ($1.5 million)• Thermocline on NF Reservoir is ~10 ft deep in summer, never more than 17 ft, weak thermocline

• Target is 97% juvenile passage from NF to River Mill, even during spills. 2018 results were a bit lower than target, but 2019 met or exceeded target

North Fork Reservoir Juvenile Surface Collectors

Original 1958 juvenile collector, 21 1-ft drops, assuming historic reservoir operations would have fluctuated up to 21 ft (now operated as stable run-of-river)

New Floating Surface

Collector

Floating Surface Collector

1,000 cfs pumps pull water through side screens and inclined screen, creating

head drop from reservoir surface, which creates attraction flow for juveniles

End of screen, 7 cfs, 6.5 ft/sec velocity barrier to prevent juveniles from

migrating back upstream

Juvenile pipeline from Floating Surface Collector to join 1958 surface collector pipe

7 cfs pipe through dam

Juvenile outmigration pipeline

Juvenile pipeline (7 miles) and adult fish ladder (1.9 miles)

Adult fish ladder

Juvenile pipeline

Juvenile pipelineAdult fish ladder

Adult wild/hatchery fish sorting facility

View Video: https://tinyurl.com/fishsortingvideo

Natural versus Hatchery Adult Fish Sorting

Natural fish returned

to fish ladderHatche

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to ta

nk, th

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trucke

d dow

nstre

am of

dams

Juvenile counting and sub-sampling facility at River Mill Dam

End of 7 mile underground journey

Sorting juveniles from steelhead kelts

PIT tagging smolts and pre-smolts,

counting fry

Juvenile subsampling facility

• Subsamples 5% of time, thus 5% of juveniles for PIT tagging and production estimates

Subsample gate and

sluice

Summary of Clackamas River Adult and Juvenile Fish Passage Costs

• Capital Costso NF Floating Surface Collector=$44 milliono NF Spillway Exclusion Net = $1.4 milliono NF Ladder and migrant channel = $0 (constructed in 1958)o NF adult sorting facility = $5 milliono NF debris boom = $500ko River Mill migrant facility = $1.6 milliono River Mill surface collector = $15 milliono River Mill fish ladder improvement = $20 million

• O&M Costso 2 FTE staff for O&M (so maybe $300k)o ~$500k for O&Mo Power costs: 1 MW for floating surface collector, 0.19 MW

for migrant channel

Total≈$88 million

Total≈$1 million/year

Take Home Points: Clackamas River• Technology has improved such that >95% passage efficiency during non-spill periods is

achievable under Oregon-Washington environmental conditions and dam operations that are more typically run-of-river projects with low fluctuations in reservoir elevations

• 100% volitional passage of both adults and juveniles (no handling) is possible with very minor migration delays, including segregation of adults (if needed) and subsampling of juveniles (if needed)

• Large power consumption (1 MW) to operate collectors and pump attraction flow upstream (year round, around the clock)

• Floating Surface Collector has a de-ballasting system to allow raising of structure for maintenance (additional $20 million); in hindsight, better to rely on divers

• Very complex control system needed for all components to work properly, with considerable “fine tuning” as the facilities become operational

• Debris management is the biggest issue (consistent in both rivers, all ranges of debris size from logs to needles to catkins)

• Chinook juveniles are the most challenging as they tend to reside deeper in the water column. Juvenile Chinook can be below the thermocline, thus a higher % can go through outlets/turbines. Surface collector should extend below thermocline to pull more cooler water and juvenile Chinook

Take Home Points: Application to Scott Dam• None of the Clackamas River reservoirs has the degree of reservoir elevation fluctuations

and reservoir stratification as Scott Dam would have. Also, planform morphology of Clackamas River reservoirs is confined compared to wide/shallow morphology of Lake Pillsbury

• Predation in Clackamas River and reservoirs is minimal except for otters, in contrast with Lake Pillsbury and Eel River (bass, pikeminnow); Lake Pillsbury and Van Arsdale will be large

• Juvenile pipeline eliminates juvenile predation for 7 miles of Clackamas River, Eel River will be substantial

• Floating Surface Collector on Lake Pillsbury would be challenging:o No power supplyo Large reservoir fluctuations would require substantial hole through lower portion of dam or

pumping back over the dam• Fixed Surface Collector on Lake Pillsbury (e.g., River Mill Dam) likely wouldn’t work due to

fluctuating reservoir levels on Lake Pillsbury• A fixed multi-level fish collector could work (Helix design on Yakima River), and would want

majority of minimum flows to go through surface collector for attractant flows (mostly gravity driven). Pipe juveniles downstream of tailrace pool to reduce predation.

• Spillway and tailrace would likely need some remodeling to increase juvenile survival during spills and reduce predation downstream