Originally Posted By: Rivrguy
Quote:
Heard many numbers floated around but nothing too concrete.


That is because nobody knows. Antidotal info says that they do survive to some degree or the nearby tributary spawning streams are the greatest producers known. The only way to know for sure is to put some sort of smolt trap at the barrier dam down stream but how practical or what it would cost to build and operate I have no idea. I do know it would be expensive.


As I recall, all the passage studies at Wynoochee had some problems; ergo: nobody knows. I think there was a brief study of fish passage through the turbine at Wynoochee, and the survival may have been comparable to the passage system in Wynoochee Dam. I have reports somewhere, but some may be digital and some may be old hard copy in my basement. If I have some time, I'll see what I can find.

How some knothead engineer thought they could pass juvenile salmon and steelhead through several 90-degree pipe bends under high pressure and high velocity, I'll never know. What a stupid design! Yet I remember it being touted as the "bee's knees" of passage when I was in college as the dam was being constructed. As Drifter would say, "Grrrr . . . "