Dam removal soon will begin on Battle Creek
Dylan Darling
The Record Searchlight
09/15/2009
Spring-run chinook salmon and steelhead soon will have new waters to swim in along Battle Creek near Anderson when a nearly century-old dam is removed.
Workers with Contractor Services Group Inc. of West Sacramento are set to start tearing out Wildcat Dam, about 13 miles upstream from Coleman National Fish Hatchery, in November, said Pete Lucero, a spokesman with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in Sacramento.
"It's just another blockade to anadromous fish," Lucero said.
The bureau - along with five other agencies and Pacific Gas and Electric Co., which owns the dam - aims to open 42 miles of spawning and rearing habitat for salmon and steelhead along the upper reaches of Battle Creek, a tributary to the Sacramento River.
"The Wildcat is the first step in that," said Jim Smith, project leader at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Red Bluff office.
The cost of the overall project is nearly $80 million, with five small dams set to be removed. Along with the removal of Wildcat Dam, the initial phase of the project includes the addition of fish ladders and screens at two other dams along the creek.
Among other agencies working on the project are the California Department of Fish and Game, the California Wildlife Conservation Board, the California Department of Transportation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
A temporary diversion at Coleman will still be used to channel winter and fall-run chinook into the hatchery between August and March, Smith said.
The bureau awarded Contractor Services Group the $2 million contract for dam removal earlier this month, Lucero said. The work should take a year to complete.
Built in 1912, Wildcat Dam is part of a cluster of small dams on the north and south forks of Battle Creek. The dams divert water from springs near Lassen Peak to three small powerhouses that produce 28 megawatts, or enough power for 21,000 homes. Once Wildcat and the other dams are removed, the project will produce only about 20 megawatts, or enough for 15,000 homes.
