Response for project 199403300: Fish Passage Center
Comment on proposed FY 2006 budget
The following information is being provided in response to the request by the Northwest Power Conservation Council to confirm that the Fish Passage Center, project number 199403300 is requesting renewal for Fiscal Year 2006. We have compared the Council budget, the BPA budget for the project and find it consistent with the 2005 approved budget level of $1,302,904 but it does not account for approximately $40,000 of computer hardware that was made available to the FPC by the Bonneville Power Administration. Accounting for the $40,000 in computer hardware provided by BPA, the total operating budget for the FPC was $1,342,904 in 2005. The budget level approved by the Council for 2006 is inadequate to meet FPC operating expenses in 2006, as it was inadequate to meet operating expenses in 2005. The 2006 budget is inadequate to implement the scope and nature of the project objectives and tasks. Over the past three years the FPC has eliminated and cut back budget line items that have made it extremely difficult to meet the project goals and objectives. Travel and training and vehicle lease have been eliminated. The office was relocated to less expensive space in 2005, however rents increase annually. An additional $41,558 over the $1,342,904 or a total of $1,385,462 is needed to implement project objectives and tasks. The increase in funding is needed to meet increased personnel costs including a 15% increase in health insurance costs, increased rents, increases in fuel costs, and minimal increases in office supplies and computer maintenance line items.
Accomplishments since the last review
The FPC project has met all of the specific tasks and objectives that are defined for the project in the NPCC for the past three years encompassed in the last provincial review. The primary purpose of the FPC is defined in the NPCC Fish and Wildlife Program and is to provide technical assistance and information to the fish and wildlife agencies in particular and to the public in general on matters related to juvenile and adult salmon and steelhead passage through the mainstem hydrosystem. •Planned and implemented the annual SMP dissolved gas trauma monitoring as required by the NOAA BIOP, the CSS as directed by the CSS Oversight Committee •Gathered, organized, analyzed, housed and made available on a daily basis monitoring and research information related to juvenile and adult passage, and to the implementation of the water management and passage measures that are part of the Council Program •Continued to build a long term continuous and consistent data series on the passage characteristics of juvenile and adult salmonids in the Columbia and Snake rivers, to support fish passage management decisions, mitigation decisions and to assess the relative benefits of tributary and habitat improvement projects conducted within the sub-basin plans framework •Responded to all requests for data, analysis and information including review of research reports , research designs and analyses. On average over the past three years the FPC staff has responded to 500,000 requests per year through the web site or direct contact by the agencies & tribes to assist in formulating in-season flow & spill recommendations. •Completed and distributed, daily monitoring and river data, weekly reports and SMP Annual reports, CSS Reports, and quarterly reports and the annual FPC Accomplishments report required by the FPC Oversight Board. •Completed environmental compliance requirements for the SMP and the CSS activities. •Completed the requirements for conversion of the SMP, CSS and FPC projects to the BPA Picses project data system. •The FPC prepared the draft annual report to the ODEQ
FY 2006 goals and anticipated accomplishments
| Produce Environmental Compliance Documentation | The FPC will meet ESA section 10 permit application and reporting requirements and states permitting requirements for the implementation of the Smolt Monitoring Program and the Comparative Survival study. | |
| # of people reached in each of 3 classes (T/S/G): Teachers, Students, General public | The FPC web site will be maintained to include all data that is utilized by FPC and the agencies and tribes for hydrosystem operation requests. | |
| # of people reached in each of 3 classes (T/S/G): Teachers, Students, General public | All FPC analysis, comments, reviews provided to the agencies and tribes will be posted on the web site to inform, and educate the region and the public at large. Responses to all data requests will be developed as they are submitted. | |
| Coordination | The FPC will facilitate weekly and monthly Fish Passage Advisory Committee meeting to discuss fish passage data, research and operations. | |
| Coordination | The FPC will coordinate with the state, tribal and federal agencies in the design and implementation of the Smolt Monitoring Program and the Comparative Survival Study. | |
| Manage and Administer Projects | Budgets and statements of work will be reviewed and developed with the agencies and tribes for the SMP, CSS and FPC projects. Budget expenditures will be tracked throughout the year. | |
| Manage and Administer Projects | Requirements of the BPA project tracking, reporting & budgeting process will be met. NPCC project funding & tracking of budgets, SOW & process information requirements will be met .Expenditures will be tracked against the total annual budget allocation | |
| Provide Technical Review | As requested the FPC will provide technical reviews of research designs, research results, reports and proposed actions, by any regional party. | |
| Produce Plan | The FPC will produce marking and implementation plans, sampling plans and work plans for the SMP and the CSS. As required by the BPA and NPCC funding process the FPC will develop spending plans and projections for the projects. | |
| Produce Annual Report | The FPC will produce five annual reports; the CSS Annual Status Report, summarizing the adult returns, survivals , smolt to adult returns from CSS mark groups; the FPC annual report summarizing river operations, migration characteristics and the juvenile | |
| Produce Annual Report | and adult migration, hatchery production and adult returns; the juvenile and adult passage facilities annual report, the dissolved gas water quality report and the FPC Accomplishments Annual report. | |
| Develop RM&E Methods and Designs | In 2006 the FPC will develop the design for the SMP and the CSS study. This will include determination of mark group sizes, coordination of fish availability with the managing agency or tribe Past data, | |
| Develop RM&E Methods and Designs | prevailing management questions and comments and reviews by the agencies and tribes, the region and the ISAB and ISRP will be incorporated into the designs for 2006. CSMEP and subbasin plan initiatives and benefit evaluations will also be incorporated. | |
| Develop RM&E Methods and Designs | Individual sampling site requirements will be reviewed; data collection and software for data acquisition and transmittal will be modified if required. | |
| Collect/Generate/Validate Field and Lab Data | In 2006 the FPC data quality assurance process will be in place. Hardcopies of handlogs will be reviewed and compared with transmitted batch data, errors and error rates will be recorded and the results provided to each sampling site. | |
| Collect/Generate/Validate Field and Lab Data | The FPC data receipt and web posting software for passage indices, river data and all other daily data will be upgraded as necessary to meet 2006 needs. | |
| Submit/Acquire Data | All levels of data acquisition will continue in 2006 to maintain the goal of maintaining a long term consistent and continuous data base to support FPC analysis, agencies and tribes analysis and to inform the region and the public at large. | |
| Submit/Acquire Data | Hourly spill, flow, dissolved gas, and temperature data, detailed hatchery release data will be updated weekly directly from the sites, data will be acquired from sampling sites daily. | |
| Analyze/Interpret Data | The FPC will analyze, summarize and interpret fish passage data resulting from the SMP and CSS, as well as data available from other sources to address basin wide | |
| Analyze/Interpret Data | as well as project specific fish passage issues and the implementation of research and monitoring results to hydrosystem and fish passage management actions. |
Goals/products/services to the region for direct use in juvenile & adult fish passage management decisions, applying to real time day to day management, implementation of BIOP measures & NPCC Fish & Wildlife Program mainstem passage measures: •Add 2006 juvenile & adult fish passage characteristics data to existing historic time series of data to support implementation of BIOP measures & to support implementation of NPCC mainstem passage measures •Design & implement the SMP, including daily data reporting, to support juvenile & adult fish passage management decisions on a daily & weekly basis. •The SMP will be designed in conjunction with the CSMEP mainstem hydrosystem technical group to address data collection from tributary and sub-basin marking projects to support the long term determination of benefits from sub-basin plans & to collect migration data to contribute to sub-basin plan activities. •FPC Annual Report which summarizes, mainstem hydrosystem fish passage operations, fish passage conditions and characteristics will be completed. •The CSS will be designed & implemented under the auspices of the CSS Oversight Committee, data summaries, & calculations of travel time, survival & smolt to adult returns will be completed for the draft annual status report prepared by FPC & finalized by the CSS Oversight Committee. •The dissolved gas monitoring program will be designed, implemented & the report for 2006 completed to comply with the state dissolved gas waiver permit requirements. •All environmental compliance requirements for the SMP and the CSS will be completed including ESA section 10 permits application & reporting requirements & individual states requirements. •Requirements for reporting & maintaining the BPA Pisces system for SMP, CSS & FPC. •Respond to all data requests,requests for analysis & reviews from fishery managers & public. We anticipate response to at least 685,000 requests for data, analysis, summaries or reviews, both through the FPC web site & direct contact. •FPC will write & distribute weekly reports to the region March-Octobe
Subbasin planning
How is this project consistent with subbasin plans?
The FPC project is consistent and contributes value added to all sub-basin plans that enhance habitat and or hatcheries, to increase anadromous fish production from that basin. The SMP data and FPC analysis will provide valuable data and information back to each sub basin regarding the downstream passage characteristics of the particular stocks of anadromous fish in each subbasin.
How do goals match subbasin plan priorities?
The SMP and FPC do not conflict with any priorities in any sub basin plan upstream of Bonneville Dam and the SMP and FPC can contribute valuable information back to each sub basin as they begin to evaluate the benefits of their sub basin activities, regardless of the priority assigned within each subbasin of evaluation of benefits of activities.
Other comments
This form and data submittal appears to be designed for habitat and tributary projects and does not address the management or decision making aspects of hydrosystem management for fish passage, Mainstem projects that directly relate to hydrosystem management decisions are under emphasized in this process, although they may be important to resolution of the most prevailing questions regarding management of the hydrosystem.