Monitoring of Subyearling Chinook Salmon Survival and Passage at Bonneville Dam, Summer 2010

The purpose of this study was to estimate dam passage and route specific survival rates for subyearling Chinook salmon smolts to a primary survival-detection array located 81 km downstream of the dam, evaluate a BGS located in the B2 forebay, and evaluate effects of two spill treatments. The 2010 study also provided estimates of forebay residence time, tailrace egress time, spill passage efficiency (SPE), and spill + B2 Corner Collector (B2CC) efficiency, as required in the Columbia Basin Fish Accords. In addition, the study estimated forebay passage survival and survival of fish traveling from the forebay entrance array, through the dam and downstream through 81 km of tailwater

Compliance Monitoring of Yearling Chinook Salmon and Juvenile Steelhead Survival and Passage at Bonneville Dam, Spring 2011

The study was designed to estimate dam passage survival at Bonneville Dam as stipulated by the 2008 Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS) Biological Opinion (BiOp) and to provide additional fish passage performance measures at that site as stipulated in the Columbia Basin Fish Accords

Route-Specific Passage Proportions and Survival Rates for Fish Passing through John Day Dam, The Dalles Dam, and Bonneville Dam in 2010 and 2011

This report fulfills a request of the U.S. Army Engineer District, Portland, Oregon, to produce an interim report of estimates of route-specific fish passage proportions and survival rates for lower Columbia River dams in 2010 and 2011. The estimates are needed to update the Compass Model for the Columbia River Treaty and the new Biological Opinion before detail technical reports are published in late 2012. This report tabulates route-specific fish-passage proportions and survival rates for steelhead and Chinook salmon smolts passing through various sampled routes at John Day Dam, The Dalles Dam, and Bonneville Dam in 2010 and 2011. Results were compiled from analyses of data acquired in spring 2010 and 2011 studies that were specifically designed to estimate dam-passage and forebay-to-tailrace survival rates, travel time metrics, and spill passage efficiency, as stipulated by the 2008 Federal Columbia River Power System Biological Opinion and the Columbia Basin Fish Accords. The study designs allowed for estimation of route-specific fish passage proportions and survival rates as well as estimation of forebay-passage survival, all of which are summarized herein

Monitoring of Subyearling Chinook Salmon Survival and Passage at Bonneville Dam, Summer 2010

The purpose of this study was to estimate dam passage and route specific survival rates for subyearling Chinook salmon smolts to a primary survival-detection array located 81 km downstream of the dam, evaluate a BGS located in the B2 forebay, and evaluate effects of two spill treatments. The 2010 study also provided estimates of forebay residence time, tailrace egress time, spill passage efficiency (SPE), and spill + B2 Corner Collector (B2CC) efficiency, as required in the Columbia Basin Fish Accords. In addition, the study estimated forebay passage survival and survival of fish traveling from the forebay entrance array, through the dam and downstream through 81 km of tailwater

Evaluation of Blade-Strike Models for Estimating the Biological Performance of Large Kaplan Hydro Turbines

BioIndex testing of hydro-turbines is sought as an analog to the hydraulic index testing conducted on hydro-turbines to optimize their power production efficiency. In BioIndex testing the goal is to identify those operations within the range identified by Index testing where the survival of fish passing through the turbine is maximized. BioIndex testing includes the immediate tailrace region as well as the turbine environment between a turbine's intake trashracks and the exit of its draft tube. The US Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Energy have been evaluating a variety of means, such as numerical and physical turbine models, to investigate the quality of flow through a hydro-turbine and other aspects of the turbine environment that determine its safety for fish. The goal is to use these tools to develop hypotheses identifying turbine operations and predictions of their biological performance that can be tested at prototype scales. Acceptance of hypotheses would be the means for validation of new operating rules for the turbine tested that would be in place when fish were passing through the turbines. The overall goal of this project is to evaluate the performance of numerical blade strike models as a tool to aid development of testable hypotheses for bioIndexing. Evaluation of the performance of numerical blade strike models is accomplished by comparing predictions of fish mortality resulting from strike by turbine runner blades with observations made using live test fish at mainstem Columbia River Dams and with other predictions of blade strike made using observations of beads passing through a 1:25 scale physical turbine model

Monitoring of Juvenile Yearling Chinook Salmon and Steelhead Survival and Passage at Bonneville Dam, Spring 2010

The purpose of this study was to estimate the survival for yearling Chinook salmon and steelhead smolts during spring 2010 in a portion of the Columbia River that includes Bonneville Dam. The study estimated smolt survival from a virtual release at Bonneville Dam to a survival array 81 km downstream of Bonneville Dam. We also estimated median forebay residence time, median tailrace egress time, and spill passage efficiency (SPE), as required in the Columbia Basin Fish Accords. A single release design was used to estimate survival from Bonneville Dam to a primary array located 81 km downstream of Bonneville. The approach did not include a reference tailrace release. Releases of acoustic-tagged smolts above John Day Dam to Hood River contributed to the formation of virtual releases at a Bonneville Dam forebay entrance array and at the face of the dam. A total of 3,880 yearling Chinook salmon and 3,885 steelhead smolts were tagged and released in the investigation. The Juvenile Salmon Acoustic Telemetry System (JSATS) tag model number ATS-156dB, weighing 0.438 g in air, was used in this investigation

Re-Analysis of Hydroacoustic Fish-Passage Data from Bonneville Dam after Spill-Discharge Corrections

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - Portland District asked Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to re-analyze four years of fixed-aspect hydroacoustic data after the District made adjustments to spill discharge estimates. In this report, we present new estimates of all major fish-passage metrics for study years 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2004, as well as estimates for 2005. This study supports the Portland District and its effort to maximize survival of juvenile salmon passing Bonneville Dam. Major passage routes through Bonneville Dam include 10 turbines and a sluiceway at Powerhouse 1 (B1), an 18-bay spillway, and eight turbines at Powerhouse 2 (B2) and a sluiceway including the B2 Corner Collector. The original reports and all associated results, discussion, and conclusions for non flow-related metrics remain valid and useful, but effectiveness measures for study years 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2004 as reported in previous reports by Ploskey et al. should be superseded with the new estimates reported here. The fish-passage metrics that changed the most were related to effectiveness. Re-analysis produced spill effectiveness estimates that ranged from 12% to 21% higher than previous estimates in spring and 16.7% to 27.5% higher in summer, but the mean spill effectiveness over all years was only slightly above 1:1 (1.17 for spring and 1.29 for summer). Conversely surface-passage effectiveness decreased in the years this metric was measured (by 10.1% in spring and 10.7% in summer of 2002 and 9.5% in spring and 10.2% in summer of 2004). The smallest changes in the re-analysis were in project fish passage efficiency (0%-1%) and spill efficiency (0.9%-3.0%)

Hydroacoustic Estimates of Fish Density Distributions in Cougar Reservoir, 2011

Day and night mobile hydroacoustic surveys were conducted once each month from April through December 2011 to quantify the horizontal and vertical distributions of fish throughout Cougar Reservoir, Lane County, Oregon

Compliance Monitoring of Juvenile Yearling Chinook Salmon and Steelhead Survival and Passage at The Dalles Dam, Spring 2011

The study estimated dam passage survival at The Dalles Dam as stipulated by the 2008 Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS) Biological Opinion (BiOp) and provided additional performance measures as stipulated in the Columbia Basin Fish Accords. This summary report focuses on spring run stocks, yearling Chinook salmon and steelhead

Hydroacoustic Estimates of Fish Density Distributions in Cougar Reservoir, 2011

Day and night mobile hydroacoustic surveys were conducted once each month from April through December 2011 to quantify the horizontal and vertical distributions of fish throughout Cougar Reservoir, Lane County, Oregon