Drainage District #7 Pump Station Retrofits for Safe Fish

Passage

Ryan Bartelheimer, P.E.

Snohomish Conservation District

Main Topics to Cover

• Drainage, Diking, and Flood Control District Basics

• District #7 Location and Size

• District #7 Important Habitat Elements

• Pump Station Areas of Concern

• Using Cooperative Compliance to Gain Improvements

• Steps Taken to Design and Permit a Solution

• Changes Based on Permits

• Construction Results

• Education and Monitoring Efforts

• Plans for Future Restoration within Drainage District #7

Drainage, Diking, and Flood Control District Basics

• District geographic boundary is the land area that benefits from the district’s activities

• Three commissioners are elected from within the district boundary

• An assessment is levied annually to pay for budgeted costs

• In 2004 in Washington State, 128 Drainage, Diking, and Flood Control Districts existed (Source: Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington)

Drainage District #7 Location and Size

• Adjacent to and north of Duvall, WA

• Southwest of Cherry Creek

• East of Snoqualmie River and SR 203

• At lower end of Snoqualmie River floodplain

Drainage District #7 Location and Size (cont.)

• District covers about 930 acres

• Drainage area includes an additional 650 acres, including a small lake and some Coho spawning creeks

• Three major private landowners present

• WDFW owns over 50% of the land in the district, which is a wildlife and recreation area in the center of the district

Drainage District #7 Important Habitat Elements

• Snohomish Basin covers about 1,818 square miles

• Snoqualmie Watershed covers about 690 square miles

• Cherry Creek Subbasin covers about 27 square miles

• Cherry Creek is the furthest downstream of the major tributaries on the Snoqualmie River

• Cherry Creek has high documented abundance and diversity of fish

• Lower Cherry Creek is backwatered from the Snoqualmie River during moderate to high flows

• Drainage District #7 provides flood refuge and juvenile salmonid rearing

Pump Station Areas of Concern

• Non-fish-friendly pumps, which were typically operated at the same time as juvenile out-migration

• Temporary screen

• Limited passage through tide gates

• No passage through slide gates

• Many fish ended up in the district after seeking flood refuge from Snoqualmie River

Using Cooperative Compliance to Gain Improvements

• Drainage District #7, Washington Trout, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and NOAA Fisheries entered into Cooperative Compliance process

• Timeline established• Met regularly to update the parties on planning, grant

acquisition, monitoring, modeling, designing, and construction

• The same groups continue to meet to plan future phases of restoration on WDFW property and to discuss ongoing monitoring efforts

Steps Taken to Design and Permit a Solution

• Washington Trout obtained Salmon Recovery Board funding to model the hydraulics of the drainage district to assist in evaluating possible design alternatives

• Washington Trout and R2 Resource Consultants observed juvenile salmonids seeking flood refuge at the pump station when the slide gates were down

• Phil Jensen, PE with WDFW, got the project started, then asked me to take over as project manager

• The plan just prior to obtaining permits was to replace the pumps with Hidrostal fish-friendly pumps, screen the pump intakes, replace one tide gate with a regulated gate, and add three orifices in one of the slide gates

Changes Based on Permits

• WDFW and NOAA Fisheries decided that the fish would be better off going through the pumps rather than screening them out of the pumps

• The pumps were typically operated at the same time that juvenile salmonids were migrating downstream

• If the fish were stuck in the pump station area for an extended time, they would be subject to predation

Construction Results

• Replaced one flap-gate with regulated side-hinged gate• Replaced pumps with WEMCO HidrostalTM pumps• Added three orifices to one slide gate• Gate and pumps are

float-operated• No screens required

Construction Results (cont.) – Orifice Specifics

• Orifices were installed in one slide gate at Cherry Creek as an experimental way to let juvenile Chinook salmon into the district during spring Snoqualmie River floods

• Juvenile Chinook had previously been seen swimming in the top foot of water near the dikes and pump station during spring floods with no way to escape the high velocities and turbid water

Construction Results (cont.) – Tide Gate Specifics• Gate will always open when outlet

water is lower• Gate closes only when the outlet-side

water is above a set point and water is flowing back through the gate

• Passes debris easier than most• Can be manually opened with a

hand-pump to clear debris or check operation

• A vegetable-oil based hydraulicsystem actuated by a floatcontrols when the gate can close

• Requires no electricity

Education and Monitoring Efforts

• NOAA Fisheries and WSU created two different videos that showcased this and other projects

• NOAA Fisheries bought monitoring equipment that is being used to evaluate how well their draft fish passage guidelines are being met at this site

• Washington Trout obtained funding to monitor the effectiveness of fish passage through the pumps and tide gate

• Washington Trout’s preliminary results on the live fish pump study follows this one on the agenda

Plans for Future Restoration in Drainage District #7

• Washington Trout is working on a design to combine and meander the three parallel ditches on the east side of the property

• Ducks Unlimited is working on a design to create additional habitat on the north and west portions of the property

• Neither of these projects would be viable without the modifications that have been made to the pump station

Summary

Questions or Comments?

Thank you.