They are rebuilding the power station and the channel above the falls. They have track hoes digging in the river channel and silting it up. So much silt at times that visability is less than 6 inches. All happening at summer low flows. I have floated the river for 12 years with mask and snorkle checking out the fishing holes,picking up tackle and generally checking out the health of the river. I float from just above Plumb to the take out at Neal rd. about 5 miles all the time I am in the water looking arounsd only using using the raft to pick up lures and garbage I find. On a normal float I see 10 to 20 steelhead , lots of trout, whitefish, Chub, Suckers,sculpin, Crawdad, Perriwinkles, clams etc. This year I have yet to see a live crawdad and have only seen two steelhead in two floats. Most of the sculpin I see are dead. There is a huge freshwater clam bed near Plumb that is half its normal size this year compared to the past 12 years. I floated a short section Sat with a neighbor who is an environemental consultant that is pretty level headed about the balance of use issues. During his short inspection he said it appeared to him that the silt has really affected the system. These are just my casual observations and while I am well informed of how a river ecosystem works I am no expert. I just seems to me that because of the hatchery on the system that they have given up on protecting or even restoring the river. Unless of course you are a private homeowner looking for a building permit within 5 miles of the river.

Agreed- the river is %$#$(*$%( up right now.
I wrote a letter to PSE about it, but not sure what else to do..

I wrote two letters to the WDFD last week and as of today no response. I'm not sure if the lack of fish or critters in the crummy is attribtued to the recent backhoe work but I know it isn't helping.
The Snocrummie has been my home river for over 40 yrs. The last 5 to six years the resource is just going down and down. One major problem I see here is the 9 golf courses that but up to the river. One of the major contibuters to pollution is the fertilizers put on them.
Another is the lack of control on building, roads and drive ways. And just the amount of people impact on the river.
There catch and release regs have been in place on this river for years but there seems to be no real gain in native populations there. the WFWD keep decreasing the hatchery numbers to a point that if theres a little environmental hicup the runs gone. Where dose my money go???
They don't have moneys to feed hatchery fish but they have money to put eco barriers all over the Fall city ramp and cut the parking to a minimum.

Sorry for the rant but I feel better

Ron Bob

The King & Ron Bob, I personally do not know the reason that PSE is getting away with breaking the clean water act? I'll check tomorrow about who to contact. I know that if I was discharging dirty water off my job site, my a$$ would be in deep do-do.
As far as the return of fish this summer, check out the number of summer run smolts planted in the Sno. Can you say ZERO! It sure is a plesure to pay for our license and get no fish in return.
The comercials and tribes get first water and we are left to fight amongst ourselfs over the scraps the state throws our way.

Writting a letter is certainly the first thing to do. I read a long time ago that public relations departments for business and enterprise companies ascribe a multiple of weight to a written letter that questions or criticizes their practices. For example, when they recieve a letter, they assume that there are x number of other people who feel the same way. That was then. Today, when any e-mail can be forwarded with a couple clicks, a letter sent and signed probably carries much more weight. Good job!!!

PSE being an unconscionable publicly held utility, their first obligation is to the shareholder. In regards to the Snoqualmie, I seriously doubt they have violated any terms of their permits. The problem we have is with the regulatory authority that granted these permits.

Actually I believe the work being done is by the Corp of Engineers and not PSE. I beleive that the project is to widen the channel upstream of the falls. It is being done in providing increased channel capacity to reduce flooding around the town of Snoqualmie. That makes it a difficult project to say no to.

Charr-
You might want to look at the following web site.
http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/harvest/harvest.htm

There appears to be a gilch in the Snoqualmie listing as it says all the smolts (51,000) were planted in the Raging (believe they actually released at the mouth of the Raging). Regardless the Snoqualmie did recieve a plant and that plant is as large or larger than recent releases.

While any of you may wish to express outrage at the current situation it would not hurt to have your facts straight before flying off the handle.

tight lines
S malma

Smalma is correct - The smolts were going into the raging river but there wasn't enough water so they ended up going in the snoqualmie at the mouth of the raging river

My guess is that the upgrade is probably covered with some type of Federal permit which makes the project exempt from any local, state, or county agencies controls for monitoring and protecting water quality. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Corps more than likely set the project conditions for the contractor to follow. Hmm I'lll ask around and try to find out more.

BD

This river has been fighting silt issues for some time. The Snoqualmie Ridge project and other construction has caused issues for several years. Thankfully, the construction is slowing down, so the river doesn't murk up quite as bad after a rain, but it's still an issue. I don't think this recent work is that bad, and it didn't put the silt in the river bed in the first place.