Nmfs Asks Water Quality Exemption For Salmon

A federal agency is asking Washington and Oregon for permission to open spillways of Columbia and Snake river dams to help young salmon migrate to the Pacific Ocean.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is asking temporary modification of water quality standards to allow more water to be spilled over eight hydroelectric dams this spring and summer.

Spilling more water puts more dissolved gases into the river. That can injure or kill fish, so the states’ permission is required.

The Washington Department of Ecology planned to rule on the request Friday, before a similar agency in Oregon considers the issue, spokeswoman Mary Getchell said.

The water spills, intended to get more juvenile fish past dam turbines to the Pacific Ocean, are scheduled from March 14 through Aug. 31.

The Washington Department of Ecology and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality are expected to approve the request as the most efficient way of getting fish to the ocean. Barges are also used to transport fish around dams.

“The fish have to get out there. We want them to get out there as safely as possible,” Getchell said Thursday.

Studies conducted by the Fisheries Service conclude dam spills are the most efficient and effective ways of getting juvenile fish downstream, despite some mortality and disease, she said.

When water spills over the dams, dissolved gas is produced in the roiling waters below. Air trapped inside water is called total dissolved gas.