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Qualitative Assessment of the Impacts of Proposed System Operating Strategies to Resident Fish Within Selected Columbia River Reservoirs
This report reviews literature and interviews experts to analyze the impacts of several proposed system operating strategies on management goals for resident fish in each section of the Columbia River System. The authors consider the impact of operations under the treaty on resident fish populations as well as detailing the status of three Canadian bodies (Kinbasket, Arrow and Kootenay Lakes) influenced by management regimes under treaty conditions.
“The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) are presently conducting the System Operation Review (SOR) for the Columbia River basin. The SOR began in 1990 and is expected to provide an operating strategy that will take into consideration multiple uses of the Columbia River system including navigation, flood control, irrigation, power generation, fish migration, fish and wildlife habitat, recreation, water supply, and water quality.
From a list of 91 alternatives for coordinated system operation, the SOR Management Team has selected 7 alternatives (a total of 21 options) for full-scale analysis. The objective of full-scale analysis is to determine a preferred alternative form of system operationthatcanbeincorporatedintoanEnvironmentalImpactStatement(EIS). Toassist BPA and the SOR Management Team with this goal, the Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) performed the following tasks:
1. a thorough review of relevant literature on resident fish populations within the following reservoirs and river reaches: Kinbasket Reservoir, Arrow Lakes, and Kootenay Lake in British Columbia, Canada; Flathead Lake, Montana; Clark Fork River below Cabinet Gorge Dam, Idaho; Pend Oreille River below Albeni Falls Dam, Washington; Lake Rufus Woods and the Columbia River below Chief Joseph Dam, Washington; the Mid-Columbia River below Wells, Rocky Reach, Rock Island, and Wanapum Dams, Washington; the Hanford Reach below Priest Rapids Dam, Washington; the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam, Washington and Oregon; and the Snake River below Hells Canyon Dam, Idaho and Washington. These areas were identified by the Resident Fish Work Group (RFWG) as having fish species of either economic or ecological significance;
2. interviews with individuals who have expertise on resident fish within these specified reservoirs and river reaches; and,
3. a qualitative assessment of impacts to resident fish that could potentially result from the seven proposed system operating strategies.
Based on our review of the literature and interviews with resident fish experts, we provide descriptions of each of the investigated reservoirs and river reaches. The
descriptions focus on three distinct management goals for resident fish: biodiversity, species-specific concerns, and sport fisheries, in addition, this report provides a qualitative assessment of impacts to the resident fish within these reservoirs and river reaches from the seven alternative system operating strategies.
The system operating strategy (SOS) that is predicted to have the fewest impacts on resident fish is SOS-4 because it minimizes storage reservoir fluctuations while moving the Columbia River system closer to natural flow conditions at the run-of-river projects.” (Taken from summary)
Author: Shreffler, D.K. Geist, D.R. Mavros, W.V. Pacific Northwest Laboratory
Publisher: United States. Bonneville Power Administration
Date: 1994-01
