Concurrent Sessions A: Emerging Engineering Solutions for Downstream Fish Passage at Big Dams - A Portable Floating Fish Collector - New Approach to Flexible, Small-Scale Downstream Fish Passage

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) identified a need for a small-scale, portable floating fish collection (PFFC) device to gather additional information on juvenile fish movement in Willamette Valley Project (WVP) reservoirs. This device was intended to provide a cost-effective means of safely obtaining juvenile fish in WVP reservoirs for use in research, monitoring and evaluation efforts as well as to gather information on the behavior of both tagged and run of river fish near and within a small floating surface collector. There are three planned deployments for the device: Lookout Point, Detroit and Cougar Reservoirs. Of these Cougar Reservoir represented the most challenging of the installations due to the large storage capacity provided for flood control and resulting wide range of reservoir water surface elevations. The facility design ultimately provides the USACE a device that can be broken down into components sized to allow safe and normal transport over the state highway system. The attraction flow can be varied from 20 to 140 cfs with hydraulic components that allow tuning of the flow to optimum hydraulic performance for each flow. The anchoring system is designed to accommodate up to a 200 ft variation in reservoir water surface, including rapid fluctuations. Features that provide separation and protection of various sized fish include a grader with adjustable bar spacing, shelter areas and the means to sort fish by way of a crowder and hopper system. Power for operating systems is provided via a submerged cable tied into station power. The cable also contains wiring that can be used to convey instrumentation and operational readings back to land based computer equipment. Once positioned, the winch/anchor system can be used to vary the orientation of the PFFC. With this system it is also possible to move the PFFC within the reservoirs to different locations by lifting the anchors and using an auxiliary craft to push the PFFC to a new location and then re-deploying the anchors