Your PUD News Release

Chelan River Project gets salmon approval

Chelan County PUD
News Release
4/19/2010

A habitat improvement project that restored year-round flows to the Chelan River Gorge and led to increased spawning and rearing territory for salmon and steelhead officially concluded its first phase Monday afternoon when Chelan County PUD commissioners authorized final payments to contractors who built the project.

Now PUD biologists and other natural resource agencies will watch what happens to the fish who use the new habitat for the next 10 years.

So far, everything looks good, said PUD fisheries biologist Steve Hays. He told commissioners more than 250 salmon nests (redds) were built by fall Chinook last October and November and that small salmon fry are now emerging from the gravel in the four acres at the mouth of the Chelan River near Chelan Falls. Each redd can produce about 5,000 fish.

The $16 million project involved building a new stream in the lower stretch of the Chelan River where it empties from the gorge, adding a new outlet to the Chelan Dam so water could come from Lake Chelan year-round and adding a pump station and canal near the Chelan Falls Powerhouse to provide additional water when fish are spawning.

The final price was about $265,000 less than the original budget of $16.2 million. It was completed a year ahead of the federal deadline.

“The salmon approved,” Hays told commissioners. Fisheries agencies hope the new spawning area will increase numbers of returning Chinook and possibly steelhead.

Commissioners praised the PUD staff team for a job well done.

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Commissioners recessed their afternoon meeting and planned to reconvene at 6 p.m. at Michael’s On The Lake in Moses Lake for the quarterly meeting of the Mid-Columbia PUD commissioners and managers. They planned to adjourn and continue the meeting at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the North Central Regional Library headquarters in Wenatchee for a board retreat.

The next regular commission meeting is at 1 p.m. on Monday, April 26, 2010, in the PUD boardroom at 327 N. Wenatchee Ave.

Most PUD commission meetings are recorded, and a link to the audio is available on the PUD’s home page at www.chelanpud.org.
Steve Lachowicz
Communications director
509-661-4639, direct line
509-679-0148, cell
steve.lachowicz@chelanpud.org