Evaluation of Mitigation Effectiveness at Hydropower Projects: Fish Passage

None supplied. From executive summary: Hydroelectric dams can be barriers to upstream-migrating fish and a source of mortality from turbine passage to downstream migrants. To mitigate these impacts, many projects are required to install upstream and downstream fish passage facilities, as stipulated in the articles associated with the licenses that are issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness on this mitigation in achieving the goal of fishery resource protection. The evaluation was based on information from fish passage effectiveness monitoring plans and annual reports which are filed with FERC by licensees and stored in the eLibrary database. Fish passage is one of several mitigation areas (others include shoreline management, water quality, and recreation) that were reviewed as part of the FERC strategic plan for meeting the intent of the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993. The study reviewed 269 projects that had at least one license article related to fish passage and were licensed or relicensed during a 16-year period from 1987 through 2002