Your PUD News Release

Chelan River fish work receives national honor

Chelan County PUD
News Release
4/26/2010

Chelan County PUD was honored Monday (April 26) by the National Hydropower Association as one of three Outstanding Stewards of America’s Waters (OSAW) for 2010.

At ceremonies in Washington, D.C., as part of the annual NHA conference, Chelan PUD received a plaque recognizing its work on the one-of-a-kind Chelan River Habitat Restoration and Enhancement Project. The $16 million project completed last year as part of the new 50-year operating license for the Lake Chelan Hydro Project restores year-round flows to the Chelan River, adds four acres of new spawning and rearing habitat at the lower end of the river and provides additional water from a new pump station at key times of the year for steelhead and salmon spawning.

Hundreds of salmon spawning nests were built by fall Chinook salmon last October and November, an indication that the project is working the way it was designed. Working with state and federal fish agencies, American Indian tribes, the state Ecology Department and local Chelan area residents, the PUD developed a collaborative plan to provide for fish, recreation, aesthetics  and continued generation of renewable hydropower while keeping the Chelan Hydro Project economically feasible to operate.

Year-round flow through the Chelan River resumed Oct. 15, 2009, and a public open house was held at four stops around the project in connection with Public Power Week that same month, showing off the various features.

In comments submitted as part of the OSAW award application, Tom Tebb, director of the Central Regional Office of Ecology, said, “Ecology is pleased and proud to have been a partner and not just a regulator in this important project. Restoring the lower Chelan River and riparian habitat will allow for fish and wildlife to prosper and provide a unique world-class feature that will allow the public and scientists to better understand how restoration can work with a little help from humans. … The restoration project represents the best efforts between state, federal, tribal agencies and the PUD to find workable solutions that add value to our lives.”

Additional information on the OSAW awards is available on the NHA Web site.

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Steve Lachowicz
Communications director
509-661-4639, direct line
509-679-0148, cell
steve.lachowicz@chelanpud.org