Two Crooked River passage projects completed
April 27th, 2009The Crooked River Watershed Council has recently completed two projects that allow fish migrating the Crooked River to reach their spawning grounds. These are two of many supporting projects helping to restore fish passage in the Deschutes River Basin. PGE and the Tribes, through the Pelton Fund, contributed a total of $950,000 to the projects.
Anticipating the return of salmon and steelhead to the Crooked River, the Crooked River Watershed Council formed a team to identify fish barriers and create workable solutions. Team members were from PGE, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Their work led to restored fish passage at two Crooked River irrigation dams.
Restoring fish passage at the Crooked River Central Dam
The Crooked River Central Irrigation District’s dam near Prineville was a high priority because it is just downstream of Ochoco and McKay Creeks — prime spawning ground for both steelhead and salmon.
The dam had flashboards that backed up water to feed an irrigation canal. The dam posed an impassable barrier for fish, and farmers had to wade into the river to place and remove the boards.
The solution was a new concrete dam that works well for both farmers and fish. Fish navigate past the dam through a vertical slot fish ladder. Now when farmers need irrigation water, they can just push a button that raises and lowers an inflatable weir. The new dam received final approval in April 2009.
Total cost of the project was about $1.2 million, 40 percent of which was provided by PGE and the Tribes through the Pelton Round Butte General Fund.
People’s Irrigation District Dam
The second project involved a 7-foot-high concrete dam just upstream of Prineville that had blocked fish passage for 40 or 50 years. It is operated by the People’s Irrigation District.
The solution was to construct a bypass channel around the dam. Made with rocks, native plants and grasses, the channel provides a natural passageway. Work was completed in January 2009 and a fish screen will be installed in the irrigation canal this summer. Total project cost was about $200,000; the Pelton General Fund contributed about 85 percent of the funding.
Thanks to this collaborative effort on these two projects, fish can now travel up the Crooked River to their native spawning grounds. And McKay Creek, Ochoco Creek and the Lower Crooked River can once again become valuable rearing grounds for young salmon and steelhead.
