Beginning Tuesday, July 10, Army Corps of Engineers water managers for Mud Mountain Dam on the White River will slowly begin to step down flows in the White River while repairs are done at the diversion dam near Buckley, Wash.

Flows over the next few days will move from about 3,000 cubic feet per second to 350 cfs by July 16. Flows will be increased when the work is complete – likely on or before July 19.

The diversion dam is part of the infrastructure that helps push water and fish into the Corps of Engineers’ fish facility in the same area.  Migrating salmon are contained and then moved upstream of Mud Mountain Dam at this facility. Without a working barrier dam, this critical mission is jeopardized.

The Corps’ Seattle District is working with Cascade Water Alliance, which owns the barrier dam, to provide water management in the White River to allow for the safety of the workers at the repair site.

The repairs are important to the passage of listed endangered species of coho and Chinook salmon as well as other species, such as the estimated one million pink salmon that returned to the barrier dam in 2011.

As always, river users are cautioned that flows can change without warning.