By Michael Howell
Chairman of the Bitterroot Conservation District (BCD) Howard Eldredge and Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) fisheries biologist Chris Clancy, who also serves in an advisory capacity for the BCD, have both been keeping a close eye on the work being done to eliminate a dangerous re-circulating current behind the Supply Ditch irrigation diversion dam that has captured several boaters in recent years and finally took the life of a young girl in 2013. They are not only keeping a close eye on it, they are photographing the progress of the work almost daily.
Eldredge was quick to point out that he was not really doing this in any official capacity.
“I’m just an interested party,” said Eldredge. “I have no legal reason to be here. I’m just really interested in it.” Then he shrugged and said, “I just care.”
As he approached the dam last Saturday, Eldredge anxiously began his assessment of how the coffer dam was holding up, how the temporary culvert was working on the bypass ditch, how the pumps were working and generally scanning the river flows up above the dam and below.
“If the river comes up too high it’s going to slow us up,” said Eldredge. “We’re not ready for it to flow over the dam yet.”
He pointed out how, instead of pouring over a vertical concrete wall, the water would pour over a slowly descending slope of large rocks. The bed of rocks was grouted with cement in its upper portions next to the dam. On the river-left (as floaters approach it from upstream) a boat ramp is grouted for a longer distance, although a boat could go over the dam at any point. The viscous re-circulating current that made going over the dam more dangerous than the average boater would suspect should be eliminated completely.
It was after the fatality in 2013 that efforts to address the problem at the dam really took hold. Not only did the irrigators and the state agencies involved come together but so did the politicians and a lot of other people. Money was the only big hold up. Eventually an unusual, but successful, set of grants was put together to make it happen.
A $300,000 grant from the Army Corps of Engineers was obtained. Although it didn’t quite meet the grant criteria exactly, the project was awarded a $125,000 Renewable Resource grant from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. FWP kicked in a $40,000 grant and a lot of in-kind help in producing the design. The irrigators are also contributing to the project.
At the same time that efforts were mounted to find funding for reconstruction and repairs, FWP closed the river in the area of the dam for safety reasons. That move led to a lawsuit being filed challenging the closure. A couple of local attorneys argued that closing the river due to a hazard issue was a bad precedent. It also violated the agency’s own rules about taking such action. They argued that risk was a part of public recreation on a river and suggested warnings and education were appropriate but not restrictions and closures. They pointed out that while a few people have had trouble at the dam and some with tragic results, many more people had passed it successfully. The lawsuit was settled out of court and a temporary closure with a set date for reopening it were established as part of the settlement.
FWP also began the process of passing a closure rule through the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission. Close to half the public comment was against the closure rule, but the rule was adopted in December 2015 allowing for this specific closure on the Bitterroot River in a five-mile stretch that contains the dam.
Eldredge said that the final cost won’t really be known until the project is finished. There is still a lot to do and a short time in which to do it. A hole at the bottom of the rock slope below the dam has to be filled and rocks need to be placed along the bank at the edges of the dam. Then the temporary ditch and culvert used to divert the water around the coffer dam will have to be removed along with the cement coffer dam itself. Then a lot of gravel that has been moved in various places in the river to re-direct the flows will have to be restored to normal.
“We’re looking at March or even mid-March at this point to really finish up,” said Eldredge. He said that one reason some water was left flowing up to the dam while they worked on it was to maintain the invertebrate populations in that stretch of the river and maintain good habitat. One reason he is anxious about high water delays is that they hope to get the thing operational before the famed Skwala Stonefly hatch that brings fishermen out like, …well, like a swarm of Skwalas. The hatch generally occurs in March sometime.