It's not that juveniles cannot pass downstream at Wynoochee Dam. The matter is that the survival rate from passage through the dam is too low. So putting adults upstream of the dam is not a complete waste, more like a partial waste of fish resources. Fish passage alternatives that could be successful do exist. What irks me is the lack of effort on the part of the fish resource agencies to force culpable parties to install them.

This predates my involvement, but the parties involved with transferring Wynoochee Dam to Tacoma settled on a process available through the Corps of Engineers that ultimately didn't include enough money to actually fund downstream fish passage. In hindsight, that was an obvious strategic error. However, there are still ways to pursue fish passage for Wynoochee, but none of the agencies appear to have the appetite to do so.