Cherry Creek

The Cherry Creek project is moving forward.  The contractor has diverted the creek around the upstream work area and begun constructing the first four rock weirs.  In the process of dewatering the work site, a fish rescue was conducted by WDFW.  See the photos below.

The contractor constructed a bulk bag dam to divert the creek into the bypass channel.

The bypass channel is lined and several hundred feet long.

The fish rescue crew working in the cold and snow.

A few of the 85 rainbow trout removed during the first session.  They ranged in size from 70 mm to 370 mm (2.75 to 14.5 inches).

Beginning to construct the first of the four rock weirs.

AL

December Work

I'm a bit behind on blog posts!  December has a busy month so far.  Most of the concrete work is now done on the Keach-Jensen project.  The next big push in the schedule is back filling around the structure and preparation for the block building.

Work on the backside of the structure, including the walls for the Keach and Jensen ditch outlets

Forming the walls for the ditch outlets.

Weather became an issue and the site needed to be protected from snow and then heated for the pour.

The final big pour occurred last week.and the structure itself is substantially complete.

After some delays, the Cherry Creek Project is finally underway.  The project includes fish screens and irrigation delivery improvements for three water right holders and the correction of two passage barriers.  Those barriers currently block access to 2 miles of stream.  The project is located west of Moe Road on Cherry Creek.

A substantial road into the lower part of the project site was constructed.  The road allows the streambed rock and weir rock to be hauled in and stockpiled.

This is the lower diversion structure that will be removed and replaced with a series of 8 rock weirs.

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Manastash Construction Update

Keach-Jensen is moving right along!  The outside wall is complete, as are the rock weirs and the fish bypass pipe. The work continues on the outlet portions of the structures.

Forming the slab for the Keach Ditch outlet

Forming the slab for the Jensen Ditch outlet

 

Pouring the slab for the Jensen Ditch outlet



Finishing the rock weirs after the outside wall was completed.



The MWDA/Consolidated Diversion had a few punch list items left, including a security fence.  The fence is now installed. Other remaining items include a debris boom in front of the headgates and work on the programing the automation.

The security fence was completed at the MWDA/Consolidated Diversion.

AL

Keach-Jensen Progress



Progress continues at Keach-Jensen.  Last week the Sutton Bank Protection project was completed.  It involved rocks and root-wads to stabilize a section of bank upstream of Keach-Jensen.   

At the diversion structure, there was a small pour last week, and then a lot of preparation for a big pour today.    The big pour was for the slab that stretches the length of the structure. The next pour will be the outside wall (on the creekside). It is scheduled for this Friday.  Once that wall is in place, the rock weirs can be completed and the site is ready for the creek to be at least partially returned to it's channel.

Keach-Jensen Diversion structure - last week.



Installing the frame for the fish screens.

 

Pouring the big slab today - more than 40 yards of concrete!

Belsaas & Smith crew working on todays big pour.

Sutton Bank Protection Project- finished last week.



Fish Surveys in the Manastash

On Friday, WDFW and KCCD staff conducted 2 fish surveys in Manastash Creek.  The sites were Manastash Creek upstream of Barnes Road and Manastash Creek upstream of the MWDA diversion.  It was a beautiful day and there were lots of fish!  At the lower site, there were lots of spring chinook salmon, rainbow trout and sculpin.  At MWDA, there were rainbow trouts (the biggest was about 10" long) and sculpin. Thanks to Jennifer Scott and William Meyer (both with WDFW) for their work!

Jen Scott  identifies and measures all fish collected during the survey at Barnes Road and places them in the cooler before releasing them back in the stream.  The landowner (left) was very interested in what was collected. 

Anna and Brent are ready to net the fish that Jen finds with the electrofisher.  Ryan is in the background with the bucket to collect the netted fish. 

William Meyer (WDFW) worked up the fish found at the MWDA site.  There were only two species found, rainbow trout like this one and sculpins.

AL

Keach-Jensen Update

On Tuesday, the first pour at Keach-Jensen was completed. It went well and the contractor is forming for the next pour.  The project is moving along and the weather has been great!

Belsaas & Smith crew working on the first pour.

AL

More progress at Keach-Jensen

The structure at the Keach-Jensen diversion is beginning to take shape.  The contractor is moving toward the first pour this coming Tuesday.  The weather has been very nice, making for great working conditions.

Forming for the first pour 

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Keach-Jensen & Small Project Cost Share

Construction continues at the Keach-Jensen site on Manastash Creek.  Excavation for the fish screen facility is underway.  Forming should begin this week and the first pour is scheduled for the week of Oct 18.


Excavation is underway for the fish screen facility at Keach-Jensen.



We received 12 applications for our Small Project Cost Share Program.  Initial site visits are underway and we expect the Board to make the funding decisions at the Oct 14 monthly meeting.

Typical applications include piping irrigation ditches to improve water use efficiency.

AL

This week's report. . . .

Today we received the report from the State Auditor's Office on our Single Federal Audit for 2009.  This audit was required because we expended more than $500,000 in 2009.  The audit report states an "unqualified opinion".  Although it doesn't really sound like it, that's a good outcome for the audit.  It means that no "significant deficiencies" or "material weaknesses" were found.  If you'd like to read the report and see the Schedule of Federal Awards (federal grants to the KCCD) for 2009, click on the link below.
KCCD 2009 Single Federal Audit Report

We tried out the NYCD chipping crew on one of our firewise projects this week.  The crew worked in the Wagon Wheel area of the Middle Fork Teanaway.  They hauled about 20 yards of chips to a storage area where we can access them for our riparian planting projects.

The WCC crew feeding the chipper. . . it has the capacity for 12" diameter materials!

The rock weirs at the Keach-Jensen Diversion are as complete as they can be until the outside wall of the fish screen facility is poured.  Next week will be the beginning of excavation for the facility.  The first major pour is scheduled for early October.

Mike Garello (HDR), Don Shriner (KCCD), Brent Renfrow (WDFW) and Brandon Drexler (Belsaas & Smith) were on site today checking the elevations of the weirs that have been constructed so far.

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Keach-Jensen Construction and Site Tours

Construction of the rock weirs continues at Keach-Jensen.  The three lowermost weirs have been completed.  Another two weeks are needed for the remaining weirs.

HDR engineer Mike Garello works with Belsaas & Smith operators to construct the third of nine weirs on Manastash Creek below the Keach-Jensen Diversion.

Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife conducted a tour of project sites as part of Fish Screen & Passage Workshop.  The MWDA/Consolidated and Barnes Road diversion sites were both included in the tour, along with projects on Caribou, Cooke, Coleman, Wilson and Taneum Creeks.

WDFW tour participants watch as the air burst cleaning system is triggered at the MWDA/Consolidated Diversion on Manastash Creek.



Anna describes the Barnes Road diversion to the tour participants.



Larry Browne with Ellensburg Water Company describes the function of his diversion on Cooke Creek.  This structure was the first construction project under YTAHP in 2003.

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Keach-Jensen Construction- Rock Weirs

Construction of the rock weirs is officially underway at the Keach-Jensen (K-J) site on Manastash Creek.  These weirs will provide fish passage over the existing sill at the diversion site.

Two excavators preparing to build the rock weirs.

Placement of the first rock for the first weir.

The base of the first rock weir.

The Manastash Ditch diversion rock weirs that were constructed last year.  This is what K-J will look like in a few weeks!

AL

Manastash Creek. . . Keach-Jensen Construction Update

The Keach-Jensen fish screen and fish passage work is now underway.  The creek was diverted into a channel around the worksite so it could be dewatered for construction.  We did a fish recovery on Wednesday morning.  Over 100 rainbow trout, along with some brook trout and other smaller species were removed from the worksite and released back into the creek.  By Thursday afternoon, the existing headgates had been be removed and the concrete cutters were working on the right bank low flow notch that is being cut into the existing sill.

Next week should see the start of the rock weir construction in the creek.

The pool just upstream of the existing diversion was fairly deep and had lots of fish in it.  This is Sherry, Mark, Jen Scott (WDFW), Brent, and Kara McDaniel (NRCS).

We found a frog too!

Saw cutting the low flow notch on the right bank.  The fish screen facility will be on the left side of this photo.

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Cherry Creek

The Cherry Creek Irrigation Diversion Modification Project pre-bid meeting was conducted yesterday.  There was a good turnout of local and regional contractors.  As part of the meeting, we visited the site.

KCCD's Mark Crowley (center) talks with the attending contractors about the project.

This is one of the two irrigation diversions addressed by this project.  It is part of the Moe Road bridge structure.  The fish passage barrier aspect of the project is apparent.

The second diversion serves two landowners, one of whom operates this pump station.  RH2 engineer Paul Cross (center pointing) explains the work at this site.

This project will result in fish screens for approximately 14 cubic feet per second and it will correct two fish passage barriers that currently block access into 2 miles of stream habitat.  There have been documented juvenile Chinook and likely juvenile steelhead rearing below the lower diversion in the off season, so we expect that these juveniles will rear in the this additional reach after the project is completed.

Bids are due September 1 and we hope to start work in mid to late October.

AL

Gearing up for Construction Season

KCCD staff is preparing for a busy construction season that should start in the late summer and go through winter.  Another fish screen facility will be constructed in the Manastash. That contract is held by the engineering firm, HDR and funded directly by the Bonneville Power Administration. The contractor will be Belsaas & Smith.  We are expecting to provide the day to day construction observation for the project.
A large project on Cherry Creek should go out to bid in August. We've worked on this project for several years and its coming down to the wire with our funding sources.  The project will provide fish screens for three water right holders and remove barriers to fish passage opening up 2 miles of additional stream habitat.

Keach Jensen Diversion in the Manastash

One of the two Cherry Creek diversions to be addressed this year

AL

South Central RC&D Meeting a Success

The South Central Washington Resource Conservation & Development Council (RC&D) public meeting was held last night at the Ellensburg City Hall.   Louis Musso, RC&D Chair, opened the meeting and he was followed by Fennelle Miller.  Fennelle is a member of the RC&D representing the City of Ellensburg.  She did a great job of describing the RC&D and how valuable it is to forming partnerships to work on natural resource issues.

Several presentations were given on RC&D related projects.  KCCD staff (Anna) presented a number of Yakima Tributary Access & Habitat Program (YTAHP) projects completed in the last few years.  The RC&D administers the base funding from the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) for YTAHP, allowing the KCCD and others to focus time on the projects, not on the grant administration with BPA.  Since it's inception in 2002, KCCD has received approximately $2.3million in YTAHP funding through the RC&D and used that to leverage another $5.5 million from other funding sources!

Carol Ready (RC&D staff) presented the Reecer Creek Floodplain project. The Mid-Columbia Regional Fisheries Enhancement Group is managing this project.  For mor information, visit their website at http://midcolumbiarfeg.com.

 David Gerth (Kittitas Conservation Trust) presented his Cle Elum River project that reactivated an old side channel. Visit his website at http://kittitasconservationtrust.org/

George Sheldon presented the Tapash Collaborative Project, which is focused on healthy forests in central Washington. For more information visit the Tapash website at http://www.tapash.org/.

Heather Simmons-Rigdon closed the meeting with a presentation about the RC&D's area plan.  The plan can be viewed on the RC&D website and public comment is welcome!  http://www.scwrcd.org.

Carol Ready presents the Reecer Creek Floodplain project at the RC&D public meeting.

AL