Commission takes up fish passage, habitat

DOVER — The Idaho Lakes Commission will take in updates on efforts to improve fish passage and habitat locally and regionally when it meets on Wednesday, Sept. 16.

The meeting starts at 9 a.m. at Dover City Hall.

The Pend Oreille Public Utility District is working on a project in Washington state to install a 900-foot-long pipe in the bottom of Sullivan Lake to channel cold water into Outlet and Sullivan creeks in order to improve native salmonid habitat. Sections of the 54-inch-diameter pipe began arriving this summer and are slated for installation this fall, according to the Pend Oreille PUD.

The Lakes Commission is keeping tabs on the project because a similar idea is being talked about to cool water in the Priest River with water from Priest Lake, said Erin Mader, the commission’s program coordinator.

The PUD will also update the commission on fish passage at Box Canyon Dam on the Pend Oreille River near Metaline Falls, Wash. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, meanwhile, will give a presentation on fish passage at Albeni Falls.

Fish passage at Albeni Falls is a hot topic because it’s seen in Bonner County as a favorable alternative to using water from Lake Pend Oreille to cool trout habitat in the river below the dam.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service will also be updating the commission on Endangered Species Act consultation related to Albeni Falls Dam.

“The ESA consultation is the driver of all things bull trout that are being done or explored at federal dam projects on the Columbia River system in bull trout range,” Mader said in an email.

The biological opinion was written in 1999 and pushes for bull trout passage at Albeni Falls Dam.