Dear Sirs:
I am wondering why somebody doesn't
design a robotic 'salmon train,' to
have salmon feeding stream inlets at below
the dam elevations, which lead to robotic
fish loaders (designed for adult salmon),
loading onto robotic 'salmon trains',
having closed topped, robotic fish cars
(to stop natural predators) holding
bins of salmon, taking a short
robotic train up-hill ride
to the top of the dam, for a
robotic fish car discharge
into the top of the dam.
The other end of the 'salmon train'
loop, can have feeder stream inlets above
dam elevation, leading to robotic fish
loaders (designed for finger-lings or fry),
leading onto robotic trains, having the same
closed topped (anti-predator), robotic
train cars holding bins of salmon, taking
a short down-hill ride to the bottom of
the dam, for a robotic fish car discharge
into the below the dam waters.
This 'salmon train' system will greatly
save water flow, key in drought years,
and should save fresh water to reduce
salmon communicable diseases, and also
the fresh water is saved for other
key uses.
The problem with the Bonneville Power dam,
on the Columbia River, WA, that during
drought periods (~50,000
[cubic feet/sec (cfs)]), there
is simply NOT enough water
to allow discharge to support
all of:
farming needs,
city water needs,
recreational lake needs,
'salmon ladder' needs,
with the last mentioned tragically
losing out, due to a lack of
legal representation.
The 'salmon ladders' take a huge
amount of dam water discharge to
be effective, also the drought-time,
low water levels encourage salmon
fry communicable diseases.
For the Klamath
River in Oregon and N. CA, with dams,
under PacifiCorp (R ) Corp. power management,
seem to have no salmon ladders at all,
and are under court decision as to
whether some should be installed,
or else the dams torn down.
Here a 'salmon train' is a good
possibility for new construction.
Txs,
Sam Stew
samstew@yahoo.com
