ascending fish is the low-head water collection dam a half mile into the TWD watershed holdings. While still “low-head”, I believed it to be a complete barrier to anadramous fish in the 1960’s and had no fish ladder at that time, and I never saw any anadramous fish above it. Six miles above this low-head dam is the Howard Hansen Dam, initially primarily for flood control. I do not believe it ever had fish passage facilities. Access. All of the historic spawning grounds for Green river anadramous fish were cut off by the development of the TWD holding for “watershed protection”.
The TWD was taken to court by the Washington Fish and Game department because of severe de-watering of the river. This suit was specifically to defend minimum streamflows in the Green river BELOW the diversion of water to Tacoma and the TWD LOST. Minimum flows have been set and granted. Streamflow. To the TWD’s defense, such suits to establish minimum streamflows have been common in the NW.
Habitat. Although anadramous fish have been cut off from upper river spawning beds, the issue of upper river habitat is still critical to the lower river in terms of water quality, temperature, and low water summer streamflows, both of which are critically habitat dependent. We will examine upper river habitat shortly.
Since the Green River is only one of multiple sources of TWD water, and a small one at that, the TWD needed to obtain water from other rivers. When the TWD announced it’s plans to build the Mossyrock Dam on the Cowlitz, it set off a massive sportsman response in concern for the magnificent steelhead and salmon runs on the Cowlitz. Interestingly. it didn’t “need” the Cowlitz watershed in order to protect and take it’s water the way it “needed” the Green watershed. The potential damage to the anadramous runs on Cowlitz really galvanized northwest sportsmen and it was in that battle that I first heard of the Northwest Steelheaders, an organization that has persisted
as one of the largest and most active sportsman interest groups in the NW. It is hard for me to remember exactly who won what in the outcome of that battle. The sportsmen didn’t want the dam built at all. The dam got built. It is my recollection that the plans; height, fish ladders, mitigating hatcheries, etc. were painfully and grudgingly conceded by the TWD in order to get the dam built at all.
I have lost count of the number of times that the Washington Fish and Game department has sued the TWD. It is interesting that a state “public” agency has to sue a “public” utility at all, rather than the recurrent pattern that has occurred between these two over the past forty years. The two issues I am most aware of are the streamflow issue mentioned above, and the great elk hunt.
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