Thursday August 10, 2023
The Goldendale Sentinel —
Chinook salmon have not been swimming in the waters of the Upper Columbia River above Grand Coulee Dam since it was built in 1941 but several Native American tribes in our region are working on bringing them back.
I recently had a chance to chat with Conor Giorgi, the Anadromous Program Manager at Spokane Tribal Fisheries, about this subject. I asked Conor why no fish ladder was installed at Grand Coulee Dam so the salmon could get past the dam like others on the Columbia River. Giorgi said a fish ladder was planned for the dam, but as the dam grew bigger and taller, the construction of a fish ladder became unfeasible.There were efforts made after the dam was constructed to trap Chinook salmon at Rock Island Dam near Wenatchee and transport the fish above Grand Coulee Dam, but the efforts to sustain the Chinook salmon in Lake Roosevelt and further north into Canada failed within a few years of the dam being built.
Grand Coulee Dam is not the only dam without a fish ladder. The next dam downstream, Chief Joseph Dam, built in 1950, also lacks a fish ladder and all migratory salmon passage has been blocked upstream of this dam near Bridgeport to the headwaters of the river in British Columbia.