Ribbon Cutting Held At Intake Dam

The US Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation celebrated the completion of Phase I of the Lower Yellowstone Headworks Project by hosting a ribbon cutting ceremony at Intake Dam on Monday April 30. The $17.8 million Phase I project saw the completion of a single diversion headworks structure that includes twelve double fish screens, sluice gates, and a new canal. The project allows irrigators within the Lower Yellowstone Irrigation Project (LYIP) to continue to receive irrigation waters and at the same time the newly installed screens prevent the entry of fish into the LYIP main canal.

Phase II will include the building of a fish passage structure. The Corps designed the entire project to protect the endangered pallid sturgeon.

"Phase I will exclude fish from the LYIP main canal," says Jerry Nypen, former LYIP manager who witnessed the lengthy process required to bring this Phase I portion of the project to fruition. "The pallid sturgeon was declared endangered in 1990, public meetings were held in 2008, and the design work on the project started that same year. The Corps also began the environmental study that year to determine how pallid sturgeon react with screens and to discover their habits and how they swim."

The Corps made numerous changes to the design before finally reaching consensus with the Bureau and LYIP as to what design would work best.

Ames Construction of Aurora, Colorado won the contract bid to build the Intake Diversion Fish Protection Project. The headworks project has reinforced concrete pile walls and a bridge deck placed on 247 drilled reinforced concrete caissons 36 inches in diameter and 35 feet deep. The structure contains twelve separate fish screens, each with a sluice gate, hydraulic power unit, and controls.

"This was a big job to screen fish out of that amount of water," Nypen notes. "It was a big challenge, a massive undertaking, and it could be complicated to keep it running properly. The gates are fully automated and the technology will have to be kept up to date."

Nypen expresses appreciation to the Corps and to the Bureau of Reclamation, as the project required a lot of cooperation and communication among various interested entities for its successful completion. "Both the Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation worked fully with LYIP," Nypen remarks. "LYIP participated in the design and construction, and we were very grateful for the good cooperation we received. I want to acknowledge this cooperation; we reached good rapport and an understanding of the needs of all of us, and we all worked together to achieve those needs."

He concludes, "The Army Corps of Engineers doesn't normally build irrigation works, but they undertook this large irrigation feature. They listened to LYIP and incorporated the needs of our water users into their design plans. This was a good project and it took good cooperation among all of us to achieve this result."