Fish passage | Fish passage in focus
Fish passage projects within the hydro industry continue to evolve in response to new challenges and more information. This is why researchers are working hard to gather data in both freshwater and tidal environments
FISH PASSAGE PROJECTS HAVE been described as being like a journey. It’s not possible to simply build a facility and walk away. They continue to evolve as new challenges and uncertainties emerge, requiring a lot of hard work from dedicated professionals over many years to make incremental progress. The above reflections are from a BC Hydro team in Canada which has spent the past 15 years planning, designing, constructing, and operating temporary and permanent fish passage facilities at The John Horgan Dam and Generating Station (formerly known as Site C) on the Peace River in northeastern British Columbia. As Nicolas Burnett, Sarah Prior and Brent Mossop
Map showing distribution of US hydropower features and reported existence of fish passage facilities across CONUS. Downstream traces begin at the hydropower feature furthest upstream and continue downstream until reaching either the ocean or a Laurentian Great Lake. (Matson et al
https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jenvman.2025.126623)
from BC Hydro, along with Vincent Autier from engineering company McMillen SAS, say: “We have a responsibility to design facilities that can operate across a wide range of environmental conditions, pass a diverse assemblage of fish species, and continually monitor fish passage so that we can maximise biological effectiveness now and in the future.” BC Hydro recently completed construction of the former Site C Project which is the third hydroelectric dam on the Peace River, and implemented a staged approach to upstream fish passage at the site. A temporary upstream fish passage facility was operated during the river diversion phase of construction from 2020 to 2024. Following the closure of the diversion
tunnels and reservoir filling in 2024, it began operating the permanent upstream fish passage facility at the outlet of the generating station to provide for upstream fish passage during the operations phase of Site C. Burnett et al say they had the unique opportunity to build and operate a temporary facility at scale for four years. Any surprises and mistakes they encountered – no matter the scale or implication – reinforced the unique opportunity to learn from the temporary facility and apply those learnings to the permanent facility that could operate for the100-year design life of the dam and generating station. The authors say their provision for upstream fish passage at Site C was complicated by: ● Uncertainty in the future fish community that would establish in the new reservoir and the Peace River downstream of the dam site, and the future movement patterns of these fish.
● Corresponding uncertainty in future management objectives for the new fish community.
● A diverse fish community with several less studied species for passage.
● The dam’s height of 60m. ● A need for operational flexibility in passing some (but maybe not all) species upstream of Site C.
They add that they learnt a lot of lessons, spanning a wide range of topics and disciplines, and felt it was
36 | September 2026 |
www.waterpowermagazine.com
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