The US Army Corps of Engineers needs to build new fish passage facilities on the White River to comply with the federal Endangered Species Act, NOAA Fisheries has said in a report.
According to reports from the Associated Press, NOAA found that too many migrating fish, including endangered Chinook salmon, are not able to make it safely down the White River or to spawning habitat upriver above Mud Mountain Dam near Enumclaw, Washington.
The agency has reportedly made an agreement with USACE that will see interim repairs completed by next summer, with a new fish passage facility to be completed by 2020.
Conservation groups have been concerned about fish kills at the dam project. The dam currently has no fish ladder, instead USACE collects migrating salmon at a nearby Buckley diversion dam and transports them past Mud Mountain. However, thousands of salmon have still been caught behind the dam and are not able to reach spawning habitat upstream.
