You’re looking at the Albany Santiam Canal as it emerges from the culvert under Queen Avenue and Pacific Boulevard in Albany Saturday afternoon.
Once again this fall, we’re seeing one result of the deep drawdown of Green Peter Reservoir: Very turbid water in the Albany Santiam Canal.
I hadn’t paid much attention, but on a bike ride Saturday afternoon I noticed the plainly brown water in the canal from Queen Avenue. The photo above shows what I noticed.
And here’s a chart showing a Saturday spike in turbidity — or the cloudiness of the water — in the South Santiam below Green Peter and Foster dams, in this case at Waterloo.
This graph from the Corps of Engineers’ “Willamette Injunction Website” shows turbidity in the South Santiam from Nov. 10 through 16, 2024.
The Albany Santiam Canal takes water from the South Santiam above Lebanon and takes it 18 miles to Albany’s Vine Street water treatment plant on the Calapooia River.
Last year was the first time the Corps of Engineers was forced by a federal court injunction to draw down the lake behind Green Peter Dam to the lowest level since the dam was completed in 1968. The Corps did the same thing at Lookout Point Dam.
The drawdown is intended to help juvenile salmon — spring chinook and winter steelhead, both listed as threatened — find their way through the dam on their life’s journey down the Willamette and Columbia rivers to the ocean.
Those fish live near the surface of the water column, and in the winter they can’t find their way through the lowest passage in the dam, the safest way, unless the reservoir is drawn way down.
Last year, the deep drawdown caused trouble and expense for the Sweet Home and Lebanon city water systems, and to a less extent to Albany’s system as well.
I never noticed any difference in Albany water quality last year, and I have noticed no difference this year either. Albany takes water from the canal and also directly from the Santiam River. The Santiam intake is below the confluence of the North and South Santiam, so any murkiness in the South water would be diluted.
At a public forum last month, the Corps said it would hold more water in Green Peter longer than last fall and then do a faster drawdown. Its time window for the drawdown was Nov. 15 to Dec. 1, when the lake level would reach 780 feet below minimum pool. The level would stay low for about 30 days and then go up again.
From what I heard when I listened to the forum online, the Corps is studying how much all of this is helping the survival rate of those migrating fish. The final answer apparently is not yet in. (hh)
Canal shows effect of reservoir drawdown
You’re looking at the Albany Santiam Canal as it emerges from the culvert under Queen Avenue and Pacific Boulevard in Albany Saturday afternoon.
Once again this fall, we’re seeing one result of the deep drawdown of Green Peter Reservoir: Very turbid water in the Albany Santiam Canal.
I hadn’t paid much attention, but on a bike ride Saturday afternoon I noticed the plainly brown water in the canal from Queen Avenue. The photo above shows what I noticed.
And here’s a chart showing a Saturday spike in turbidity — or the cloudiness of the water — in the South Santiam below Green Peter and Foster dams, in this case at Waterloo.
This graph from the Corps of Engineers’ “Willamette Injunction Website” shows turbidity in the South Santiam from Nov. 10 through 16, 2024.
The Albany Santiam Canal takes water from the South Santiam above Lebanon and takes it 18 miles to Albany’s Vine Street water treatment plant on the Calapooia River.
Last year was the first time the Corps of Engineers was forced by a federal court injunction to draw down the lake behind Green Peter Dam to the lowest level since the dam was completed in 1968. The Corps did the same thing at Lookout Point Dam.
The drawdown is intended to help juvenile salmon — spring chinook and winter steelhead, both listed as threatened — find their way through the dam on their life’s journey down the Willamette and Columbia rivers to the ocean.
Those fish live near the surface of the water column, and in the winter they can’t find their way through the lowest passage in the dam, the safest way, unless the reservoir is drawn way down.
Last year, the deep drawdown caused trouble and expense for the Sweet Home and Lebanon city water systems, and to a less extent to Albany’s system as well.
I never noticed any difference in Albany water quality last year, and I have noticed no difference this year either. Albany takes water from the canal and also directly from the Santiam River. The Santiam intake is below the confluence of the North and South Santiam, so any murkiness in the South water would be diluted.
At a public forum last month, the Corps said it would hold more water in Green Peter longer than last fall and then do a faster drawdown. Its time window for the drawdown was Nov. 15 to Dec. 1, when the lake level would reach 780 feet below minimum pool. The level would stay low for about 30 days and then go up again.
From what I heard when I listened to the forum online, the Corps is studying how much all of this is helping the survival rate of those migrating fish. The final answer apparently is not yet in. (hh)
Tags: Corps of Engineers, drawdown, Green Peter Reservoir, juvenile salmon, Santiam Canal, South Santiam River, USACE