Project Location
Lower Skagit River
Skagit County, Washington

Client
City of Anacortes and Skagit
County PUD No. 1

Period of Performance
October 1996 to December 2000

Background
City of Anacortes & Skagit PUD No. 1, Mt. Vernon, WA, Lower Skagit River Water Rights: EES Consulting senior staff were hired to determine instream flow requirements for all instream resources in the lower Skagit River (WRIA 3). The project required use of an ADCP to safely and efficiently collect IFIM field data for flows from 8,000 to 35,000 cfs.

Scope
In 1996, a team lead by Mr. Pete Rittmueller was retained by Skagit PUD and the City of Anacortes provide an instream flow study for the lower Skagit River and Skagit estuary. The study included complete scoping with agencies and water purveyors prior to field data collection, creation of new methods and analysis for estuary studies and cooperative field work with state and federal biologists. Site specific Habitat Suitability Curves (HSC) for selected salmonid species were developed through direct field observation (snorkeling & electroshocking) while adhering to strict sampling protocol. With careful planning, the safe use of boats, and effective deployment of the ADCP, the field collection budget was reduced by 30%.

Work Completed
With Mr. Rittmueller’s facilitation, state agencies, tribal biologists, and local water purveyors agreed to instream flow requirements using the IFIM results. Based on the study and agreements, the Washington Department of Ecology completed rule making for the Lower Skagit River in March 2001. This was the first new successful rulemaking conducted by the DOE in over 13 years. EES Consulting staff provided project management, scoping, data collection, analysis and reports and facilitated decision-making by the parties.

Project Manager And Key Staff
Project Manager was Pete Rittmueller. Key staff included John Blum (instream flow).