Thursday, March 28, 2024

New fish screens to be added to city water intake

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Plans are moving forward to add new fish screens to the city of Leavenworth’s water intake on Icicle Creek. At the Dec. 12 city council meeting, City Administrator Joel Walinski talked about the plans to replace the screens.
“Council member (Sharon) Waters and I went down to the Icicle Work Group discussion last week. One of the things that was talked about there was the new screens on not only the city’s intake, but also Icicle Irrigation,” Walinski said.
Walinski said another topic at the meeting was quite interesting.
“Over the course of the last two years, they have been running people up and down the hills to work the valves at the reservoirs on the Alpine Lakes,” Walinski said. “They’ve been testing the water, so they’ve been tracking temperature, flow of the water and how they could manage the water better if those valves were automated. They are beginning to collect that data.”
The data was presented at the last Icicle Work Group meeting, he said.
“It is quite interesting. Also the effects on adding that water to the temperatures to the various creeks. You are adding lake water to creek water so there is some change,” Walinski said. “They want to automate those valves so they can use telemetry to open the valves, half turn, full turn..to let water flow into the Icicle over the course of the summer so they maintain a higher average flow than those peaks and draws.
“In this particular case, Trout Unlimited wanted to create fish passage in a boulder section of the Icicle which would put different fish species above the city’s intake and therefore would require the city’s intake screens to be updated to current fish and wildlife standards.”
One of the requirements of the city, he said, if they wanted to use the city’s easement to create fish passage, then they need to make sure they’re updating the city’s intakes so the city is not left holding the bag.
“We applied with Fish and Wildlife to the Bonneville Power Association to get grant funding to redesign those screens. That funding was approved. At this point in time, we’re asking a portion of those dollars be used to reimburse the city for the cost of having an engineer review the fish and wildlife design to make sure it is up to standard so it will not affect the city’s water supply,” Walinski said.
The Washington Fish and Wildlife Department looked at the screens to make sure it works for fish, he said. The city needs an engineer to make sure the fish screens work for the city. Walinski said he is asking for $13,000 to pay for the engineer. The funds would be reimbursed once the funding arrives.
Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.

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