skagit river level

Can anyone tell me,or at least shed some light on why there is so little water being let out of the Skagit dams? Our governers office sounded concerned last Friday when I posed the question to them. However,there hasn't been any visable increase here at Concrete. It looks like it did last November when they the redds were left exposed & dry.

I have been watching also, wondering what was going on. I don't know why they would run down the volume so low now when the fish are in after running over 3000 cfs all summer. I saw the flow down to 1600 cfs last week. I wouldn't think you could get a drift boat down from Marblemount to Rockport in less that 2500. Have you been watching the fish?

The discharge from the Skagit dams is about normal for this time of the year. The flows were decreased slightly last week because the spawning flow rule changes when the pink salmon begin spawning. The main difference is that the tributary inflow to the Skagit is at extreme low levels, what is called the 95% exceedence level, meaning tributaries are at flows that are exceeded 95% of the time during this month.

One thing I find disturbing is the range of daily flow fluctuation at Concrete a couple weeks ago. Flows ranged from 4,500 cfs to 10,500 cfs, above 2.5' of water elevation change. Definitely not good for emergent steelhead fry, and potentially adverse to adult salmon spawning. The rebuild of the Baker project turbine has resulted in less flow flexibility than before, and this is definitely not looking good for fish.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

I'm confused. This project was relicensed just a couple years ago. I would have thought that in the cooperative agreement that was hammered out between the various agencies and Seattle City Light (and subsequently incorporated in the FERC license) it would have included a flow regime that is favorable to Pacific salmon, or at least not overly detrimental. If the new license doesn't include very specific recommendations on flows, including ramping rates, we have missed an important opportunity to protect the fish.

But I agree that the reason the river is low now is the lack of inflow to the resevervoir (it hasn't rained and the snow is gone). But the flow flucuations mentioned by Salmo G. are the real killer. The should be considerable justification for allowing that much flow flucuations on a daily basis. Perhaps I need to go back and review the license to see what it requires.

Flows down again today.....not good

I have been watching those USGS charts for the Skagit http://wa.water.usgs.gov/rt-cgi/gen_stn_pg?station=12193500 for months now wondering what these big spikes in the flow and stage are doing to the fish. I sent WDFW an e-mail questioning the effects of PSE Baker operations. That was a while back and haven't heard a thing from them(I'm shocked). Now I see that Washington Trout http://www.washingtontrout.org/pse.html has filed notice to sue PSE for the damage to salmon runs. What pisses me off is that the only people doing something to protect these fish are groups like Washington Trout and the coalition of other small groups joining them. Were the hell is WDFW,NMFS,FERC,EPA,Governor Locke,NWS or any of the other government agencies that talk up salmon recovery and then turn their backs on situations like PSE Baker River operations? After last winters "energy crisis" we found out were our priorities are. If the general publics monthly power bill goes up more than $3 a month, having salmon runs don't matter too much anymore.
On the positive side I see there is slow but shure progress on the Elwah Dams. http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=10739

I have noticed the erattic flows. The sudden drop of a couple of weeks ago made me scratch my head. I go down river from Concrete to town 5 days a week. The release currently seems to be much higher at night, judging from the waterline at 9:15 a.m.,on that concrete piling near M.P. 86. :p On an up note,I was over to Lower Finny Cr today. The water is low & the humpies are thick. If you have time to grab the family & a camera,(forget the rod) it's something !!!
We'll be watchin'.