Anchor QEA staff are chairing two technical committees overseeing the implementation of recently approved Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs) for Wells, Rocky Reach, and Rock Island Dams.  Located on the mid-Columbia River in central Washington, these hydroelectric dams are owned and operated by Douglas and Chelan County Public Utility Districts (PUDs), and produce a combined total of more than 2,600 megawatts of electricity.  As part of their commitment to environmental stewardship, both Chelan and Douglas County PUDs have agreed to a performance-based standard of “no net impact” (NNI) to migrating salmon and steelhead.  Achieving the NNI standard requires a combination of fish passage improvements at the dams, tributary habitat restoration, and hatchery mitigation—and a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation program to verify that the standards have been met. 

Anchor QEA staff are chairing the Coordinating and Hatchery Committees that oversee implementation and evaluation of fish passage research and development, and hatchery facilities and production, respectively.  Working closely with committee members from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Chelan County PUD, Douglas County PUD, the Colville Tribes, and the Yakama Nation, Anchor QEA was selected for this challenging assignment because of our nationally recognized expertise in fish passage and salmon ecology, and our ability to build scientific consensus in the resource management community.