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Corps worried about filling lake A target date of May 1 and an out-of-date Water Control Manual contributed to the water reduction that stranded infant wild salmon By MARK FREEMAN A fear that Lost Creek Lake would not fill by next week prompted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to aggressively reduce water releases into the Rogue River on April 19, resulting in the accidental killing or stranding of thousands of infant wild salmon, Corps officials said. Faced with losing stored water needed for protecting Rogue fish this summer, Corps hydrologists chose to reduce Lost Creek dam flows April 19 at twice the rate state fish biologists recommend for late April, Corps officials said Thursday. The quick drop helped keep the Corps closer to its congressionally approved "rule curve" for filling the lake by May 1. But it left thousands of tiny coho, chinook and steelhead fry stranded in Rogue side channels or streamside puddles, a result that the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife recommendation is meant to avert. The drop is also suspected to have killed at least one threatened wild coho, which may violate the federal Endangered Species Act. The releases did not violate policies in the Corps' Water Control Manual that call for following the ODFW recommendation "whenever possible," and the need to keep lake levels high made the more fish-friendly releases impossible, according to Ron Mason, who heads the Corps branch overseeing Lost Creek Lake. "We were losing the storage we needed for flow augmentation for the summer and we were below the rule curve," Mason said. "We had a problem here, so we chose to go with what was available according to the manual." But the manual did not describe how critical the ODFW recommendations for April are, Mason said. Mike Posovich, the Corps hydrologist new to the Rogue Basin job, was unaware of the risk to fish when he set the fish-stranding flows, Mason said. "He had no idea this would remotely happen," Mason said. The National Marine Fisheries Service on Thursday launched an investigation into the incident to determine whether the dam's water-release schedule that day violated the Endangered Species Act. It is illegal to harm, harass or kill a Rogue wild coho without permission from the federal government because it is a threatened species. An ODFW researcher found one infant coho dead Monday after it was stranded along the upper Rogue near Eagle Point. "We want to see if there is a direct cause and effect to the death of the coho," NMFS Special Agent Jim Houseman said Thursday. If federal investigators can directly link the death of that particular wild coho, or any others, to the dam's water releases, "then it shouldn't be hard to put together a case," Houseman said. The investigation also could expand into whether any of the stranded coho are in jeopardy because leaving the fish stranded could fall under the harm and harass provisions of the act, Houseman said. If the stranded coho eventually work their way back into the main-stem river, "then it's not that big a deal" and that aspect of the case could be dropped, Houseman said. Meanwhile, the ODFW continues to look into how best to save the stranded fish without killing or stranding any more salmon fry. ODFW biologists have asked the Corps to keep flows slightly higher than normal now through early June so water will continue to percolate through the side-channel pools where those stranded fish are. Those flows should keep the stranded fish alive until a June spike of Lost Creek Lake water helps flush the Rogue's migrating salmon smolts, including the stranded fish, to the sea, said John Thiebes, the ODFW's Rogue Watershed manager. "We're concentrating on trying to reduce the extent of the damage and keep as many of those fry alive," Thiebes said. Thiebes said biologists fear that a mass capture of the stranded fish could injure and kill too many fry, and that increasing the flows now to flush the fish from the channels could end up stranding even more wild salmon. Ed Bowles, the ODFW's fish division administrator, said biologists need to get a realistic estimate of the damage before his agency looks into whether to seek compensation from the Corps for the losses. The fish became stranded when the Corps dropped the Lost Creek Lake water releases from 3,000 cubic feet per second to 1,400 cfs at a rate of 300 cfs every three hours. The drop caused river levels to recede at a rate that left the small wild fry stranded among the streamside rocks and vegetation where they take refuge from high and swift waters. The ODFW recommends dropping the river by no more than 150 cfs every three hours so the little salmon can follow the receding waters back to the main-stem river. The Corps' operating protocol calls for filling the lake by May 1 every year and releasing water based on ODFW recommendations for fish needs in the main-stem Rogue from spring through fall. Almost all of the stored water is released based on downstream fish needs, and anticipating that the lake would not fill by May 1 "complicated the situation immensely," Mason said. Mason said the events of April 19 could have been averted had the Corps updated its Water Control Manual for Lost Creek Lake to include verifications and explanations of the various ODFW recommendations created since the manual was last updated 13 years ago. The Portland District has sought and failed in recent years to receive money to verify the ODFW recommendations and update the manual, Mason said. Bowles said he hopes the fish-stranding incident will change that. "Obviously, one of the things that will come out of this very quickly is a more full incorporation of fish needs, as derived by the ODFW, into the (Corps') protocol," Bowles said. "With sensitive and threatened species, there's all the more reason for that." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.