By Don Nelson
The Bonneville Power Administration is hosting a public information meeting at 6 p.m. on Thursday (April 23) at the Winthrop Barn to discuss the proposed Upper Columbia Spring Chinook and Steelhead Acclimation Project, which the agency is planning for the Methow Valley.
BPA would help fund the project, which would develop fish rearing acclimation ponds for hatchery-raised steelhead and chinook salmon in the Methow and Wenatchee watersheds. Thursday’s meeting is to begin the process of answering questions and taking public comments on potential environmental impacts and other issues that might be associated with the project.
According to a BPA press release, the project would be implemented by the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, and would improve the acclimation and release of hatchery-bred juvenile steelhead and chinook “in a manner that more accurately mimics natural systems.”
Seven existing acclimation ponds would be expanded and a new one built in Chelan County.
Fish raised in the ponds “would be distributed along rivers and streams where juvenile salmon are either not occupying the habitat or are present at low levels, with the intent of helping adults return to those areas to spawn closer to their original habitats and therefore increase survival and assist with recovery,” the BPA press release said.
BPA will prepare an environmental assessment for the proposal, which will describe anticipated impacts on natural and human resources, the release said. BPA will work with landowners, tribes, federal, state and local agencies, and other interested groups to prepare the assessment.
The Thursday meeting in Winthrop will be the second BPA session this week. The agency is hosting a similar meeting in Chelan today (April 22) at Chelan County Fire District 3, from 6-8 p.m.
BPA expects to have a draft environmental assessment available for public comment by this summer, and a final document by fall. Construction could start in summer of 2016.
BPA spokesman John Tyler said the public meetings are the beginning of the environmental assessment process, known as the “scoping phase.”
“Our purpose is to get people involved,” Tyler said.
Comments are due by May 4, and can be posted at www.bpa.gov/goto/chinooksteelheadsacclimation, or can be mailed to Bonneville Power Administration, Public Affairs — DKE-7, P.O. Box 14428, Portland, OR 97291-4428. For more information, call (503) 230-3018 or email jepeterson@bpa.gov.
