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Yolo Bypass Salmon Habitat Restoration and Fish Passage Analytical Tool Review

Joshua Viers, Mark Tompkins, Cameron Speir, Gregory T. Ruggerone, Peter Goodwin, James Anderson | October 1st, 2017

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) have issued a Biological Opinion (BiOp) on the long-term operations of the Central Valley Project (CVP) and State Water Project (SWP) that includes Reasonable and Prudent Alternatives (RPA) designed to alleviate jeopardy to listed species and adverse modification of critical habitat. NMFS’ RPA requires the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) to increase juvenile flood plain rearing habitat and improve adult fish passage for ESA-listed salmonids and sturgeon. The BiOp requires seventy-three (73) habitat restoration actions, five of which are specific to the Yolo Bypass. The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and Reclamation have developed project alternatives for the Draft Yolo Bypass Fish Passage and Habitat Restoration EIS/EIR focused on the following two Yolo Bypass actions, which are the subject of this review:

 – Increase seasonal floodplain inundation in the lower Sacramento River Basin

 – Improve fish passage throughout the Yolo Bypass Alternatives

The alternatives developed to address these two actions consist of a notch in the Fremont Weir, with alternative locations and configurations (width and weir-crest elevations), designed to increase the frequency and duration of hydraulic connectivity between the main-stem Sacramento River and the Yolo Bypass and to improve fish passage. Six alternative locations / configurations for a notch were identified.
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Keywords

agriculture, anadromous fish, Central Valley Project (CVP), ecosystem management, native fish, Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta, State Water Project (SWP), water project operations

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