Lacking data about
screening for endangered suckerfish, biologists relied on information
about salmon to design the new fish screens now being installed on the A
Canal, Bureau of Reclamation spokesmen said Friday.
"There is no criteria established for suckers," said
Chuck Korson, fish passage manager in the Bureau’s Klamath Falls office.
"We used criteria for salmonids, and we designed the screen to meet
criteria set by the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife, and California’s Department of Fish and
Game."
As a result, technical factors including water flow
velocities and the openings in the stainless steel screens may not be
optimal for sucker survival, but Korson said even that is unknown.
For example, salmon fingerlings live in the spawning
gravel where they were hatched until they can swim, by which time they are
1" to 3" long. For that reason, the openings in the 26 panels of the A
Canal fish screen are uniformly 3/32" wide.
Suckerfish larvae are much smaller than 3/32", Korson
said, and cannot swim. Therefore, the screen cannot stop larval suckerfish
from being taken into the A Canal.
Korson said one component of several ongoing studies of
the screens’ operation would be the placing of nets behind the headgates
to monitor how many larval fish are being sucked into the canal system.
"There are a lot on unknowns, but people accept that if
we can screen out adult fish it will be a big accomplishment," Korson
said. "The expectation is that having a screen is better than having no
screen."
In past years, fish that were swept into the Klamath
Irrigation Project’s system of canals and drains were virtually certain to
die, either falling victim to predators or becoming stranded when the
canals empty at season’s end, usually in September.
The fish large enough to be screened out of the system
will be funneled into a 26" diameter pipe that is being routed into an
evaluation station being built on the south side of the headgate
structure, Korson said. There, biologists will be able to capture and
place the fish into tanks, inspect them for damage, and install radio
monitoring tags.
From there, the fish will drop down a grade and travel
through the pipe back into Upper Klamath Lake, to be deposited about 200
yards away near the far shore opposite the headgate.
From there, Korson said, the fish will travel one of
three directions; downstream, through the unscreened Link River Dam into
Lake Ewuana, back up into the main body of upper Klamath Lake, or back
into the fish screen itself where — if they survive — they will once again
be deposited at the pipe’s outlet.
Korson said the use of radio tags, attached at the
evaluation station, will help biologists determine if fish are be recycled
through the fish screen. Biologists will also keep an eye on increased
activity by predators, either birds or other fish, at the pipe outlet,
which will be about three or four feet below the lake’s surface depending
on lake levels.
The cost of operating the headgates is another unknown,
although it is certain to be higher than the previous installation. Once
completed the headgates will be entirely automated, with brushes cleaning
the screens to keep them clear of algae and a mechanized rake that will
clean debris collected on a trash grate at the upstream end of the entire
structure.
In addition, the operation of the sluice gates, baffles
to control water velocity, and pumps to propel the water containing
screened fish is also fully automated, according to the onsite
construction manager, Randy Wyatt of the Bureau.
"This is a state-of-the-art facility," Wyatt said.
"Everything is automated, and we will leave the site as we found it."
Wyatt said the construction is about $200,000 over
budget as of Friday, yet that was well within expectations.
"In a project of this size, you usually factor in about
10 percent for a buffer," Wyatt said. "For an $11 million project, we are
doing pretty well. We have an excellent contractor and, although we will
be going down to the wire, they have a very good chance of making their
date."
Wyatt explained there are four target dates set on his
calendar; March 20, when the headgate is set for manual operation, April
1, when manual operation with water is scheduled, and July 22, when the
entire work is completed.
A fourth date, set in November, is for the completion
of a second, 36" pipe for fish screened from the headgate that will bypass
the evaluation station and go directly to the Link River below the dam,
Wyatt said.
Wyatt confirmed the general contractor, Slayden
Construction, will be required to pay "liquidated damages" for each of the
target days missed, although he made it clear the monies were not
punitive.
The money, set at $6,500 per day after April 1, an
additional $4,000 per day after July 22, and another $2,400 per day after
the November target, are to cover costs incurred by the Bureau to maintain
construction inspectors and engineers on the site, Wyatt said.
There are no bonuses for early completion of the
contract, added Wyatt.
"This is a federal contract and, although I’ve heard of
performance bonuses, those aren’t in the federal contracts I’m familiar
with," Wyatt said. "We pay a fair price for the expectations contained in
the contract."
When asked, Wyatt said the sill height, or the maximum
depth the headgate can draw from the lake, remains unchanged.
Queried about the large metal building erected on the
site for storage of equipment and materials, Wyatt said as far as he was
concerned it was coming down when construction is complete.
"That is what it says in the contract, and that’s what
I plan to do," Wyatt said. "There was no city inspection of the footing,
and it was built for this project."
Wyatt said he had heard of talk about the landowner
wanting to leave the building standing, but it was not something that was
his concern.
"Until I’m told something different
by my boss," Wyatt said. "That building is coming down." kgibson@cot.net