US Government causing massive fish kill
Odd Grydeland
In an apparent move to avoid the risk of future flooding downstream from the Grand Coulee Dam, the government agencies earlier this week authorized the discharge of some 55,000 cubic feet (~ 1,600 cubic meters) per second through what is called “slip tubes” through the centre of the dam. This causes high underwater pressure which in turn leads to the supersaturation of the water from Nitrogen gas, which at certain levels is toxic to fish.
What makes this situation particularly bad is that much of the water passing through the dam is usually funnelled through a set of hydroelectric turbines which- when in use- tend to slow the water down with the effect of reducing the gas pressure, but now six of the turbines have been shut down for maintenance, causing the huge amount of water to be discharged through slip tubes.
According to an official with Pacific Seafood, the result is that water entering the river below the dam is now saturated at a level of 135.7%- well above the 110% the dam is allowed to operate within, and also well above the 125% level that is the maximum considered necessary to keep fish alive. Pacific Seafood has some 2.7 million Rainbow trout in two farms on the Columbia River, and a second company also operates a fish farm that is now in jeopardy. The company stands to see economic damage to the tune of US$ 30 million (~€ 21.2 million) if the water discharges through the slip tubes is not stopped immediately.
According to a release by the Chairman Michael O. Finlay of the Colville Tribes today, there is a real likelihood that the water spill has “killed tens of thousands of Colville Tribes’ Redband Trout broodstock, along with hundreds of thousands of other fish in the Lake Rufus Woods Pool below the dam”. He calls for the halt to the water releases and a rethinking of the agencies strategies.
Meanwhile, in a quick response by the Washington State Senator Dan Swecker, a resolution was unanimously passed by the State Senate, calling on federal officials to look at other options in their management of the Grand Coulee Dam that could “prevent flooding as well as prevent harm to river ecosystems”. In his release, the Senator stated that “What the federal government is doing is killing the natural ecosystem of a 50-mile stretch of river- and threatening the survival of wild and hatchery-raised fish that depend on it”.
