By MIKE MALTAIS
Ward Media Staff Reporter
PATEROS – The city council has denied permission for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) to use city facilities to launch and operate a fish monitoring PIT (Passive Integrated Transponder) barge into the Columbia and Methow rivers. The council issued the denial at its regular monthly meeting on April 15, until WDFW resolves issues with Douglas PUD’s permit for barge use and placement.
Douglas County PUD General Manager Gary Ivory addressed the council to explain the PUD’s position and the utility’s concerns about where the barge would be anchored and the impacts it would cause.
The Quad City Herald previously reported on WDFW’s PIT barge project, the latest story in July 2022 when WDFW officials appeared before the council. During that time, fish biologist Andrew Murdock from the WDFW Wenatchee office, Chad Jackson from Ephrata, and Region 2 Director Brock Hoenes from Ephrata explained a cutting-edge spring chinook salmon and steelhead tagging project in Twisp , Chewuch, and Upper Methow rivers to collect data on the survival factors of popular sport fish.
The Bureau of Reclamation partnered with WDFW to fund the PIT project.
The reason behind the study was the chronically low egg-to-smolt survival rate of about 1.3 percent in the Methow River compared to a 3.1 percent rate in the Wenatchee River. WDFW hopes that tagging and tracking the passage of the fish will help determine the causes of the low numbers.
Smolt traps in the lower Chewuch and lower Upper Methow rivers will capture juvenile fish fitted with transponder tags. A special PIT detection raft anchored near the mouth of the Methow will record data on every tagged fish that passes the platform.
The problem is in the location of the PIT barge.
WDFW wants to place it near the takeout spot on SR153 along the west bank of the Methow River above the estuary. The PUD opposed the placement for stream silt management, boater safety, and liability reasons.
Because the barge is an over-water structure and anchored in a PUD reservoir, WDFW requested PUD approval to deploy the barge. WDFW also needs council approval to use the city’s launch facilities.
Ivory said the proposed barge location is problematic for several reasons.
“We have what we call a ‘groin’ four big fingers sticking out of the river there,” Ivory said. “That was an operational creature of the Wells project.”
Ivory explained that as water flows into the Methow River, silt deposits along the south bank near the mouth, and the area becomes congested.
“Years ago, our engineers designed rock fingers that stick out of the river,” Ivory said. “The fingers are usually submerged, but in the spring, when we get a lot of water coming up the river, we lower the (Pateros) reservoir to a very low level, and those finders push the water out of the river and get hammered. all that sediment and carrying it into the (Columbia) river.
Ivory said fingers crossed that the WDFW barge is in the area.
“It’s natural river erosion,” Ivory said. “We want to keep that clear.”
Ivory said PUD representatives met with the WDFW director and offered other solutions to collect PIT data in different ways but without success.
Legal ramifications pose another problem.
“Our biggest concern is liability,” Ivory said, “If we were to (issue) a permit for that and someone was killed or injured on that barge, our lawyers told us we’d be in deep pockets. ..and they will chase us.”
Ivory linked the two incidents to the WDFW barge anchored in the Wenatchee River.
“That barge broke loose twice and went into the Rock Island Dam,” Ivory said.
Ivory noted that WDFW may decide to deploy the barge anyway, but advised the agency that it cannot use PUD-controlled locations to stage it.
“This data is not essential to the scheme and scope of the data being collected on fish,” Ivory said adding comments about the PUD’s own Habitat Conservation Plan.
“The Wells project has the best access to the Columbia River,” Ivory said. “We are responsible for 96 percent of the fish that enter our reservoir until they go through our project and get downstream.”
The PUD must also replace the remaining four percent of fish lost to predation and other causes.
“We have the Methow hatchery and the Carlton hatchery and a pretty big hatchery in Wells,” Ivory said.
Mayor Kelly Hook asked if the PUD is collecting the same data that WDFW is trying to collect with its PIT barges.
“We’re working on both Wells and Rocky Reach,” Ivory said.
In response to council member Frank Herbert’s question about which agencies have what authority over the rivers, Ivory said the PUD, WDFW, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) are still addressing some that are not legal questions yet to be answered.
Mike Maltais: 360-333-8483 or [email protected]
