Key Projects

Fish Passage

Grant PUD has invested millions to ensure the protection and safe passage of juvenile fish along the Columbia River. We further bolster fish populations by spawning and raising approximately 10 million salmon in more than 20 hatcheries and rearing facilities throughout the Columbia River Basin.

Most recently, our annual costs to operate and maintain these facilities totaled nearly $15 million. This cost includes habitat improvements and control of the predator fish and birds that feed on young salmon. Through safe passage, habitat enhancement and hatchery supplementation, Grant PUD’s operations have achieved “no-net-impact” on fish.

Benefits

It’s a colossal balancing act. When salmon and steelhead are migrating up or down river, we keep generating, but at turbine speeds that studies have shown ensure the highest survival rate for fish passage. Survival through our dams’ turbines range from 91 percent to 96 percent, depending on the species. Big investments over the past decade in juvenile fish bypasses at both Priest Rapids and Wanapum dams have pushed the survival rates as high as 100 percent for the young, ocean-bound salmon and steelhead that take bypass downriver. Spillway survival is greater than 94 percent.