Fish are well adapted to respond favorably to natural changes in flow, emphasis on natural. Since when does dropping flow by 85% over a 12 hour period constitute natural. Those juveniles didn't have much of a chance.

I wish that news piece mentioned the work windows and why they weren't considered. Russ Ladley mentioned the adult migrations during the spring and summer (winter steelhead followed by springers, then fall chinook). Lowering a river for a half a day would probably not effect adults on their spawning migrations nearly as much as when juveniles are in the stream. Adults don't travel up side channels. They rarely travel up the lesser of two channels when a river splits. And since they're migrating as opposed to spawning, they would basically hunker down in a deep spot and wait it out. That's why the work windows for these rivers is in mid-late summer. Its after the juvenile outmigration and before substantial spawning of adults occurs.