Discovery of Dead Trout Renews Debate on Dam

The discovery last week of a dead steelhead trout at the Freeman Diversion Dam has renewed debate over how the dam’s fish ladder is operated.

The 22-inch steelhead was found March 16 by biologists working for the United Water Conservation District.

The carcass was taken to Long Beach for analysis by federal wildlife biologists, who found that it contained thousands of eggs.

Officials are not sure how the fish died, but they say it was found in an area that adult steelhead do not frequent.

“The mystery is why it swam the way it did, because it came upstream and then went back downstream into an area it could have easily gotten out of,” said Jim Kentosh, the district’s manager of operations. “We don’t know why it stayed there.”

According to Kentosh and other officials, the fish negotiated the dam’s fish ladder Feb. 13 but instead of swimming up the Santa Clara River, it turned right and went downstream, where it got caught in the district’s fish screen bay. Feb. 13 was the last time the ladder was in operation.

The bay is where young smolt are trapped and steered toward the river and away from the diversion canal.

The fish apparently lived in the bay at least three weeks before it died.

Environmentalists who have been lobbying to protect the endangered steelhead hope the death will force water officials to reexamine their conservation efforts.

District workers said they are operating the dam and ladder according to federal wildlife protection standards and that their conservation efforts have been successful.