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Water Resources Bill Authorizes Funding for Intake Dam

Dam Modifications Should Benefit Pallid Sturgeon

billings, Montana — The passage of the Water Resources Development Act, via this week’s Congressional override of President Bush’s veto, authorizes federal enhancement of habitat for the endangered pallid sturgeon, which means funding to reconstruct the Intake Diversion Dam near Glendive.

The bill authorizes the Army Corps of Engineers to use a portion of its roughly $50 million in annual Missouri River Fish and Wildlife Recovery funds to address pallid sturgeon recovery in the Yellowstone River system by working with the Bureau of Reclamation to modify its Intake irrigation diversion to allow for fish passage.  

“The addition of the Yellowstone River and Intake Diversion to this habitat recovery program can be attributed to the strong support of the Montana Congressional delegation, particularly the hands-on involvement of Senator Max Baucus during Senate Committee deliberations,” said Bee Hall, interim director of The Nature Conservancy in Montana.

The bill, which is typically reauthorized every two years, has not been passed by Congress since 2000.

“Taking care of our fish population and keeping water flowing to our sugar beet farmers along the Yellowstone is money well spent,” Baucus said. “I was proud to help write and pass this bill that will help protect our fish population for years to come.”

Modifying Intake Dam is considered one of the top priorities and best hopes for increasing pallid sturgeon populations. Only about 150 of the large and primitive fish are left in the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers in a triangle bounded by Fort Peck Dam, Garrison Reservoir in North Dakota, and Intake.

Located 70 miles upstream from the Yellowstone’s confluence with the Missouri River, this dam has been a “closed gate” to spawning and migrating warm water fish on the Yellowstone.  

“This legislation recognizes that investing in the Yellowstone River and other tributaries to the Missouri are critical for pallid sturgeon recovery, said Burt Williams, the Conservancy’s Yellowstone River project manager. “We are proud to have been a part of a partnership of the irrigation districts, state and federal agencies, and non-profit organizations that did the preliminary work establishing that the project is feasible,” he added.

“This is just tremendous, it’s what needs to be done to benefit Yellowstone River fish and at the same time allow for continued agricultural success,” said Don Youngbauer, chair of the Yellowstone River Conservation District Council.

Modifying Intake dam to make it more fish friendly could take four years and $40 million to complete. The Bureau of Reclamation and Army Corps of Engineers are evaluating design options and will consult with the public before construction begins. 

“We’re seeking a design that provides a way for fish to move past Intake diversion, and which at the same time is practical to construct and assures provision of irrigation water to the Lower Yellowstone Irrigation Districts,” said Williams.

 One option being considered is to reconfigure the dam into a river-wide ramp that has a slight gradient that doesn‘t impede the passage of warm water fish. It also includes a screening system so that fish will not be swept into the irrigation canal as they move downstream.

The Intake project comes on the heels of another fish passage success in the Yellowstone system: the completion of the Muggli Fish Passage around the Twelve-Mile Dam. This 860-foot channel allows warm water fish to access their traditional spawning areas on the Tongue River for the first time since the dam was built in 1885. 

That effort, inspired by local irrigator and businessman Roger Muggli, was completed this fall through the efforts of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Conservancy and the local Tongue and Yellowstone Irrigation District.

Fish passage modifications are also being considered for several other dams on the Yellowstone and Tongue Rivers.

Similar to Intake and the Twelve-Mile Dam projects, these future fish passage efforts will only be started when all parties are satisfied that local needs can be accommodated when fish passage is accomplished. The S&H Dam and Mobley Dams on the Tongue, as well as Cartersville Diversion at Forsyth are in various stages of planning.

In addition to pallid sturgeon, these projects should enhance the habitat for sauger, channel catfish, blue sucker, burbot, chubs and other warm water fish species.

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The Nature Conservancy is an international, nonprofit organization that preserves plants, animals and natural communities by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. The Conservancy’s Montana chapter, based in Helena, has six community-based programs around the state. It has worked with landowners and other partners since 1979 to conserve almost 550,000 acres of land in Montana. For more information, visit Nature.org/Montana