For More Information Contact:
Lance Robertson, 984-4716 or 954-7509 (cell)
Eugene Water & Electric Board

The Eugene Water & Electric Board will take a number of actions to better protect threatened bull trout and salmon at its Carmen-Smith Hydroelectric Project on the upper McKenzie River.

In addition, the municipal utility will embark on a number of studies in 2004 to learn more about the power-generation complex's impact on threatened or endangered species and their habitat.

The fish-enhancement measures and studies are the result of a two-year consultation EWEB undertook with federal fisheries agencies. EWEB requested the consultation in advance of a $1.1 million project to build an emergency spillway at Trail Bridge Dam, and because the utility is starting a federal relicensing effort for the 40-year-old Carmen-Smith project.

In June, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service issued a biological opinion saying the spillway project, as well as continued operation of the Carmen-Smith project, likely won't jeopardize or "adversely affect" species protected by the federal Endangered Species Act. The McKenzie River is the home to the last healthy populations of bull trout and wild spring Chinook salmon in the Willamette River Basin. Both have been listed as "threatened" by the federal government.

The favorable biological opinion from the federal agency is a critical step needed to construct the spillway and for continued operation of the power complex during the relicensing process, said Laurie Power, EWEB's environmental affairs manager. EWEB's current federal license to operate Carmen-Smith expires in 2008.

Over the next few years, EWEB will provide more than $100,000 to help finance a handful of U.S. Forest Service habitat-improvement projects for fish above and below Trail Bridge Reservoir, one of three reservoirs in the Carmen-Smith project. EWEB also will provide funding, if needed, for Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife efforts to enhance the availability of nutrients in the McKenzie River above Trail Bridge Dam.

EWEB also will launch studies in 2004 examining the potential for fish passage above Trail Bridge Dam, and the power complex's potential impact on water temperatures, sediment, large woody debris, fish populations and turbine mortality.

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