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Giant Fish Slide for Ice Harbor Dam by Staff BPA Journal, April 2005

A 10-story-tall, 850-ton spillway weir was towed nearly 200 miles up the Columbia river in mid-February to Ice Harbor Dam near the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will attach it to one of the dam spillways by the end of March.

BPA funded the $20 million innovative juvenile fish bypass structure, commonly referred to as a fish slide. Regular spillways pass fish at high speed and under high pressure through gates 50 feet below the surface. The removable weir passes spill close to the water surface giving fish a slower, low-pressure ride. The less turbulent water on the dam's downstream side allows the smolts to move downstream more quickly and avoid predators.