Pine Creek
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Pine Creek

Pine Creek

Smith-Root designed and constructed a permanent barrier to divert upstream-migrating fish into a bypass fish trap.
  • Location: Swan Valley, Idaho
  • Commissioned: 2010
  • Type: Waterway

Project description

Idaho Fish and Game operates a continuing program to protect native cutthroat trout from non-native rainbow habitat and possible crossbreeding pressures. One part of this effort involves intercepting all upstream-migrating fish in particular streams so that the rainbow can be removed. A pilot installation of a temporary Smith-Root fabric barrier at a diversion weir on Palisades Creek, a tributary of the Snake River, proved successful in 2007. Smith-Root designed and constructed a permanent barrier at the same site in 2009. The following year a similar barrier was constructed in Pine Creek in the same area. Again this involved removing the existing weir deck, one sidewall, and rebuilding the deck and sidewalls or liners with Insulcrete™ containing slots for six steel U-shaped flat bar electrodes.

Services provided

  • Coordination with Idaho Fish and Game
  • Civil and structural design of barriers
  • Electrical and electronic design of the pulsators and power supply systems
  • Supply of electronics
  • Regular maintenance

Site characteristics

  • Pulsators: 1.5kVA POW
  • Pulsator Qty: 3
  • Power Output: 4.5 kW max.
  • Water Depth: 6 feet
  • Waterway Width: 26 feet
  • Water Velocity: 8 ft./s
  • Conductivity: 60 µs/cm max.