Boot Lagoon dam

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http://www.vancouversun.com/Technology/Aging+threatens+major+fishery/1326488/story.html

Aging dam threatens major B.C. fishery
One of British Columbia’s most economically vital salmon streams is teetering at the edge of a major fish kill.

The federal salmon hatchery at Robertson Creek in the Port Alberni region is the linchpin for high-end sport-fishing lodges from Barkley Sound to Alaska, but its performance is contingent on water stored behind an aging dam that is considered to be at imminent risk of failure.

The condition of the small wooden dam at Boot Lagoon on Great Central Lake is so grave that the lake has been drawn down to 50-year lows, lest a spring freshet causes a breach that could flood and destroy the low-lying hatchery downstream.

The draw-down took place last October, and local conservationists say up to 200,000 coho fry were stranded and died in pools left behind as the lake dried up, and the eggs laid by thousands of shore-spawning sockeye were also lost.

An official with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans says officials were forced to make a difficult choice between the fish, and public safety.

DFO is now monitoring the level of Robertson Creek full-time in case eight million salmon eggs now resting at the hatchery are dewatered in a winter dry spell that has seen precipitation drop to 50 per cent of typical levels on Vancouver Island.

DFO area chief Bruce Adkins said Tuesday the lake level is high enough to support a gravity-fed pipe from Great Central Lake to Robertson, and there’s a backup system available if the lake drops below the intake.

Local conservationist Bob Cole, however, is warning that the volume of water from the pump would be barely enough to keep the eggs oxygenated, and that DFO lacks the financial resources to minimize the risk of a system failure.

“On the west coast of Vancouver Island we are carrying all our eggs in one basket, and the handle is broken,” Cole said in a telephone interview.

“We could lose all of Robertson Creek’s production quite readily, with just the slightest error, and there aren’t substantial plans to resolve this in the short term,” Cole said. “There is no accelerated or absolute urgency. Nobody seems to be acting in the manner I think they should.”

Catalyst Paper, which operates a mill in Port Alberni, is the dam’s owner of record, but no longer has use for it, nor a larger dam at the other end of Great Central Lake, since a technology upgrade eliminated its need for stored water in 1993. The company no longer performs maintenance on either dam.

Ironically, the creation of the dams in the 1920s greatly enhanced the fish productivity of the Great Central watershed by creating more shoreline, spawning access, and water for fisheries enhancement projects.

Catalyst spokeswoman Lyn Brown said the company was negotiating a transfer of ownership to the Hupacasath First Nation, and the company’s position is that the dam “exists to serve multiple purposes.”

The Hupacasath are willing to lead redevelopment of both dams, with an eye to developing a micro-hydroelectric project at the larger one. But chief executive officer Bob Duncan said no source of funding for the projects has been identified.

Chinook are the most prized of all Pacific salmon, due to their large size and strength, and Robertson returns typically run to about 20,000 adults — after they’ve run the gauntlet of fishing lodges along the mainland coast and the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Port Alberni Mayor Ken McRae said the hatchery is a valued economic asset to the community, and the province.

“With all this [provincial and federal] infrastructure money coming out, this should be one of the priorities,” McRae said. “Let’s rebuild that dam. It could be a big construction project and it would prevent the threat of damage to the hatchery.”

DFO’s Bruce Adkins said he was confident the backup pump will sustain the hatchery if it’s needed, but said he “would like to see resolution as quickly as possible.”

“Robertson Creek hatchery is a very significant hatchery in terms of fish production for Alaska and the [B.C.] north coast. Without a doubt it is our most significant hatchery for producing fish around those fisheries,” Adkins said.

“This isn’t an ideal situation by any stretch of the imagination and it needs to be monitored closely.”

ssimpson@vancouversun.com
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