Reasons for Concern                                                                                                     Rapid River Diversion supplies water for irrigation of private property adjacent to the river.  This area houses the largest Bull Trout in the Little Salmon River drainage as well as providing critical spawning and rearing habitat and migratory corridor to Chinook salmon and Steelhead trout.

• The push up dam that was constructed annually acted as a barrier to migrating fish.
• No control of water level during high flows leads to current fish screen being overtopped with water allowing fish to pass into the irrigation ditch.

The Solution                                                                                                                  The contractor removed the existing diversion dam and replaced it with two double rock weir structures.  A headwork structure was installed that will allow water levels to be controlled. 

Conclusions   

• This project reconnected fish access to historical habitat.
• This project eased the migration of the fish in Rapid River and reduced the impacts related to the annual instream maintenance required by the old push up dam.