First Nation calls deteriorating state of Whitehorse dam fish ladder ‘extremely concerning’
Documents on Yukon Water Board registry say a portion of Whitehorse dam fish ladder damaged
A Yukon First Nation is deploring the leaking fish ladder at the Whitehorse dam, saying it validates the years-long calls for urgent changes.
“This is extremely concerning,” said Catherine Ford-Lammers, project lead with the Carcross/Tagish First Nation. “We as a nation have strongly been stating that we need to see — that the salmon need to see — a completely new fish ladder.”
The passage allows the imperilled chinook salmon and freshwater fish like Arctic grayling to bypass the dam unharmed.
According to documents posted on the Yukon Water Board registry, the timbers in a portion of the roughly 366-metre fish ladder are deformed and deteriorating. First identified by staff on Sept. 12, the company has been focused on obtaining an emergency amendment to part of its new water licence, so it can make needed repairs. To do that, though, requires draining the ladder of water, and that would go against a condition, that passage remains open for as long as possible — until ice starts to impede the flow of water.
Still, Ford-Lammers said Yukon Energy can’t keep resorting to patching up holes.
“We need to address the whole thing,” she said. “Otherwise, we’re going to be looking at emergency amendments every year if these issues are going to be popping up due to a failing fish ladder, because it is really old. It’s basically reaching its end of life here.”
Kirsten Hogan, a member of Yukon Energy’s technical working group for the dam, said the company needs to dewater the fish ladder so that crews can install the new timbers.
“It’ll be [the] weather that limits the amount of time that we have to do the work this fall,” she said. “And if it can’t be completed in the fall, then we would look to complete it in the spring.”
Hogan said water levels in the ladder have been reduced by about half and freshwater fish are still able to pass through.
“That wasn’t done until after the adult chinook salmon had stopped moving through the ladder,” she added, “so there may be some freshwater fish that are still using the ladder, but no fish have been impacted or salvaged as a result of any of the work.”
In a Sept. 26 report the water board approved Yukon Energy’s application, saying it meets the threshold of an emergency.
A problem years in the making?
According to an Environment Yukon report submitted to the board, a Yukon Energy engineer told a compliance officer that “the failing structural supports were first observed at least four years ago” and since then there have been “ongoing issues.”
The same engineer said the structure could fail “within the next year,” the report states.
Ford-Lammers calls this shocking.
“Is there an issue with communication? Is there just an unwillingness to provide us with clear and transparent information? Like, what is going on here?” she said.
“I think it really validates the concerns and the requests that we need a new fish ladder. So, let’s start planning that now because we know it’s going to take years to get funding and to build.”
Hogan, with Yukon Energy, said maintenance work is routine, happening every season.
“There have been other repairs to the timbers,” she said.
“I can’t speak to what the in-house engineer has said exactly, but there are ongoing maintenance requirements for any timber structure. But the immediate problem is one that arose this fall.”
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Routine maintenance at Whitehorse dam last fall ends with hundreds of dead fish, CBC News
Greenland: New Greenland-Nunavut Fisheries Committee won’t set harvest limits, The Canadian Press
Norway: Moscow threatens Oslo over Barents fisheries, The Independent Barents Observer
Russia: Brussels imposes sanctions on Murmansk fishery industry, The Independent Barents Observer
