Dam project nears completion

The $110 million Round Butte/Pelton Dam project is nearing completion with the April 15 target date just around winter's corner.

The project is located at the intake for the Round Butte dam. The goal of the facility is to collect downstream-migrating salmon by creating surface currents in the reservoir to the outlet. The second function of the Selective Water Withdrawal Facility is to manage water temperatures of the lower Deschutes River and get the temperatures to the way they were before the dams were introduced.

Bobby Brunoe, General Manager of Natural Resources and Warm Springs tribal member says they hope to have steelhead salmon coming back within a couple years.

The Warm Springs people called themselves the Salmon People. At one time they lived on salmon the entire year.

"The fish are more than food," Brunoe explained. "It's a gift of the creator to the tribes. The first gift is water, then fish. It is a way of life people are connected to."

The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs is a one-third partner of the project. PGE is a two-third partner. A third of the project is on tribal land and directly impacts resources important to the tribes. They own a third of the license and pay a third of the bills.

"The dams were built over 50 years ago. There was a lot of discussion then of how it affects the tribes, but the laws were different then, and there wasn't a regular communication," Brunoe said. "Tribes weren't a partner until recently."

Brett Hodgson, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) District Biologist has been involved since the beginning, along with Portland General Electric and the Federated Tribes. According to Hodgson, the license for the original Round Butte Dam construction was in 1964 (Pelton Dam was in 1956) and the license expired in 2004. The Tribes became involved in 2005 when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission licensed the project. All the stakeholders entered into a settlement agreement and identified a suitable mitigation package to reintroduce Steelhead Salmon and trout and re-establish the connection between the fish in the upper Deschutes with those in the lower Deschutes.

According to Hodgson, they did a genetic analysis on the bull trout in the Metolius River, identifying three genetically different populations based on the tributaries where they spawn.

An exchange between the species helps with fitness and survival of the fish. As they re-establish the historic runs, a concern is diseases in the lower Deschutes that are not in the upper Deschutes. ODFW and the Tribes are working together to shape how reintroduction takes place. There is some risk associated with moving adult fish from the lower to the upper river. They won't let fish pass unless they are confident fish from the reservoir are unlikely to pass disease.

They are willing to accept some risk if they can get the smolts (juvenile salmon or steelhead) safely to the ocean. However, there is a low probability any fish will contract a disease moving through the low river. The pathogens that carry disease are below the dam.

The $110 million structure will guide the fish toward the dam where they will be collected, marked, and transported in a truck. The fry from the salmon/steelhead below Round Butte Dam will be released into tributaries above the lake. They'll stay there one to two years until they get the urge to migrate to around Lake Simtustus and release below Pelton Dam. The hope is that the fish will hopefully return and be captured at the Pelton Dam lower trap. Because the fish are marked, they will know if they were originally from Lake Billy Chinook.

Don Ratliff, Biologist for Portland General Electric, the other partner in the project, said, "It's an historic monumental thing to restore a population of fish to its historical habitat. Salmon haven't been a self-producing population in the Metolius for over 40 years.

"A lot of State and Federal agencies are involved as well as non-government agencies. For example, the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board and power companies, the Tribes, and PGE fund the log implantation proposed by the Forest Service. Planting the logs will improve habitat for fish in the Metolius and help the fish grow bigger. That project is still in progress.

"Groups have been studying Suttle Lake Dam to look for fish passage as well as Whychus Creek. Several cooperative monitoring programs have been conducted with spawning surveys on resident rainbow and bull trout."

Ratliff added, "It's called a Selective Withdrawal Tower because you can be selective of what layer you are pulling water from."