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Iowa researchers get more money for salmon study
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Environmental researchers at the University of Iowa have received an additional $6.7 million to study and improve the coexistence of salmon and hydroelectric dams in the Northwest.
The grant was provided by Public Utility District No. 2 of Grant County, Wash., to study salmon habitat on the Columbia River. Since 1990, the district has given researchers at the University of Iowa's College of Engineering about $25 million.
Larry Weber, director of the university's IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering, said the additional money will be used to develop bypass systems for the Priest River Dam. Many salmon are killed in the harsh environment inside the dams or by the high levels of nitrogen absorbed as the river mixes with air after passing through the spillway gates.
Ideally, researchers hope the new bypass system will increase the dam's fish survival rate to above 96 percent and meet standards set by state and federal fisheries managers, Weber said.
Construction of the new system, modeled after one designed for a separate dam managed by the Washington utility, is estimated at $25 million.
For more than 25 years, university hydraulic engineers have researched and developed technology to preserve threatened fish and aquatic species on the Mississippi, Columbia and Snake river systems.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Environmental researchers at the University of Iowa have received an additional $6.7 million to study and improve the coexistence of salmon and hydroelectric dams in the Northwest.
The grant was provided by Public Utility District No. 2 of Grant County, Wash., to study salmon habitat on the Columbia River. Since 1990, the district has given researchers at the University of Iowa's College of Engineering about $25 million.
Larry Weber, director of the university's IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering, said the additional money will be used to develop bypass systems for the Priest River Dam. Many salmon are killed in the harsh environment inside the dams or by the high levels of nitrogen absorbed as the river mixes with air after passing through the spillway gates.
Ideally, researchers hope the new bypass system will increase the dam's fish survival rate to above 96 percent and meet standards set by state and federal fisheries managers, Weber said.
Construction of the new system, modeled after one designed for a separate dam managed by the Washington utility, is estimated at $25 million.
For more than 25 years, university hydraulic engineers have researched and developed technology to preserve threatened fish and aquatic species on the Mississippi, Columbia and Snake river systems.
|oo Iowa researchers??? 
