The Month of March

The month of March has very nearly come and gone.  Since the last blog was in February, this will be a long one.  There are a lots of pictures, as they tell the story best.
Construction on the Manastash Creek and Cherry Creek projects continue to dominate our staff activities.  At Cherry Creek, the instream weirs were completed in early March. The new head gate and fish screen and the upgraded pump vault have been set.  Some of the riparian plantings have been completed as well. At the upper site, the new pump vault has been set.  The cast in place structure for the fish screen was formed and poured.  The pipeline connecting the upper site and the lower site has also been installed.  We are closing in on the end of the project.

Looking upstream through the lower diversion structure, after dewatering but before construction of the weirs.

Similar viewpoint after removal of the old structure and construction of the 11 weirs.  This is looking upstream at weir number 5.

 

The Washington Conservation Corps (WCC) crew has begun the replanting effort along the lower reach.  Willow and cottonwood cuttings are the first to be installed.  Additional trees and shrubs will be planted next week.

A WCC crew from the North Yakima Conservation District worked to chip a portion of the limbs that were cleared from the site for construction.  The chips will be used as mulch on the planting areas.

 

The pump vault was installed at the upper site.

This is beginning of the cast in place fish screen structure at the upper site.

Pouring the slab for the fish screen structure.

Installing the pipeline that will lead from the headgate on the creek to the fish screen structure.

Forming the walls for the fish screen structure.

 There have been several activities on Manastash Creek.  At the Keach-Jensen site, the automated systems were installed and some water was run through the new facility.  The contractor and the engineer are working the bugs out of the system so that a full start-up can happen in early April.  At the MWDA Diversion, a debris boom has been installed to keep large debris away from the headgates.  The last couple of days, Sherry and Brent have been reinstalling and servicing the equipment at the flow monitoring sites on Manastash Creek.

BPA grant manager Jay Marcotte was in town last week and was able to visit Keach-Jensen.  The site is nearly finished except for some clean-up and the testing, start-up and training.

The control panels and the air tanks in the equipment building at Keach-Jensen.

This is the debris boom now installed at the MWDA/Consolidated Diversion.  It should keep any larger debris in the main channel of the creek.

AL