Dam removal should boost fish passage
Published July 23, 2017
Published July 23, 2017
PENDLETON — Work has started to remove a dam in Eastern Oregon that blocks salmon, steelhead and lamprey.
The effort to remove the Dillon Diversion Dam on the Umatilla River
outside of Echo started earlier this month. The dam is 200 feet long.
Bill Duke, district fish biologist for the Oregon
Department of Fish & Wildlife, said fish ladders on either side of
dam don’t always work properly, and the dam was considered a significant
problem for native salmon and steelhead.
“Fall
chinook and coho, they tend to come up to that obstruction and get
delayed there,” Duke said. “They end up spawning there below the dam.”
He said the spot is not conducive for rearing juvenile salmon and steelhead.
The dam built in 1915 served five landowners as part of the Dillon Irrigation Co. with water rights dating to the 1890s.
But the landowners say......read the rest of the ARTICLE.
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| EJ Harris/East Oregonian |
