Puget Sound Energy investing $50 million on new hatchery, fish trap to further aid Baker River salmon
BELLEVUE, Wash. (April 1, 2009) – Salmon runs in the North Cascades’ Baker River basin are getting another strong boost from Puget Sound Energy, which this month begins major renovation and expansion of its Baker River fish hatchery and its trap-and-haul facility for moving migrating adult salmon past the utility’s dams in Whatcom and Skagit counties.
The two projects, with a combined price tag of $50 million, are part of a collaborative, long-range effort by PSE, government resource agencies, local Native American tribes and other parties to increase the river’s fish populations, especially its prized run of sockeye salmon. The facilities’ construction is directed by the 50-year federal operating license that PSE received last fall for its two-dam Baker River Hydroelectric Project.
“The Baker’s sockeye stocks have rebounded well during the past 10 to 15 years, due in no small way to the work we’ve undertaken with our fisheries partners,” said Paul Wiegand, vice president of Power Generation for PSE. “The new hatchery and fish trap should take us even closer to realizing the kind of sustained fish runs everyone wants to see.”
The $25 million hatchery, scheduled for completion in June 2010, will upgrade and expand upon a much smaller trout- and salmon-culturing facility PSE has operated near Upper Baker Dam since the late 1960s. Besides the hatchery construction, PSE will be making physical and operational upgrades to its nearby sockeye “spawning beach.” The man-made, 20-year-old beach – essentially a series of large, gravel-bottom pools with spring-fed water circulating through them – provides a controlled, predator-free environment for adult sockeye to lay and fertilize their eggs. Reconstruction of the spawning beach is scheduled for completion in November 2010.
“The Baker River hatchery project will provide far-reaching benefits to various parties for long into the future,” said Scott Schuyler, policy representative for the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe. “For the tribe, it will assure that we can continue to fish for generations to come. These projects are shining examples of PSE working with affected parties for the betterment of the resources.”
The new hatchery and enhanced spawning beach are designed to produce about four times more fish eggs and hatched fry – approximately 14 million annually – than PSE’s current Baker River fish-culture facilities can generate.
Meanwhile, PSE is constructing a larger, completely renovated and much improved fish trap for returning adult salmon. Located a half-mile downstream from Lower Baker Dam and just a two-minute drive east of downtown Concrete, Wash., the facility, also with a $25 million budget, will contain various features and automated systems not available in the existing, 1957-vintage trap. The enhancements include higher flows of water into the trap’s riverbank entrance for better fish attraction; an automated system for segregating captured fish by species, with four separate, elevated holding ponds; a three-story, 8-foot-diameter, water-filled “elevator” with a movable floor for lifting trapped fish to the elevated holding ponds; and an adjacent survey room for data collection and scientific analysis of fish.
The new trap is slated for completion in June 2010.
“As we work to further boost the Baker River’s salmon numbers, the new trap not only will allow us to handle considerably more fish, but to manage the task in an automated, hands-off manner that’s much friendlier to the fish,” Wiegand noted.
PSE traps migrating adult salmon and hauls them upstream past its two high-wall dams in specially built, water-filled tanker trucks. In 2003, a record 20,235 adult sockeye returned to the Baker River. (Since the 1920s, the river’s annual sockeye return has averaged about 3,000 fish).
Further aiding the Baker River’s salmon population is the innovative “floating surface collector” that PSE completed in 2008 for trapping juvenile salmon in Baker Lake on their way to sea. The $50 million apparatus, moored behind Upper Baker Dam, safely attracts and captures the finger-sized fish for downstream transport by “fish taxi” truck around PSE’s dams. Once past the dams, the fish are released into the Skagit River for their passage to the ocean.
Government fisheries managers have called PSE’s uniquely designed, 1,000-ton collector an industry model for effective downstream transport of young salmon around high-reservoir dams. In 2008, its first year of operation, the facility set a new record for capture rate of out-migrating juvenile sockeye and coho salmon.
PSE plans to build a similar floating surface collector in 2012 in the Lake Shannon reservoir behind Lower Baker Dam. In addition, under the new license for its Baker River Hydroelectric Project, PSE will be building an additional powerhouse at Lower Baker Dam to help moderate the dam’s outflows and better accommodate the needs of fish downstream.
Contact
Roger Thompson, 1-888-831-7250
About Puget Sound Energy
Washington state’s oldest and largest energy utility, with a 6,000-square-mile service area stretching across 11 counties, Puget Sound Energy serves more than 1 million electric customers and nearly 750,000 natural gas customers. PSE, a subsidiary of Puget Energy, meets the energy needs of its growing customer base through incremental, cost-effective energy conservation, low-cost procurement of sustainable energy resources, and far-sighted investment in the energy-delivery infrastructure. PSE employees are dedicated to providing great customer service to deliver energy that is safe, reliable, reasonably priced, and environmentally responsible.