Steelhead trout swimming in the hatchery
The lake formed by Camache Dam
Pardee Dam and the associated hydropower facility
The highlight of the weekend (and yes, I do mean highlight since the rest of the weekend was mainly spent working on homework), was a field trip to some facilities run by the East Bay Municipal Utilities District (commonly referred to as East Bay MUD). East Bay MUD supplies water for all of the East Bay area, so they need a lot of water. Hence, two large reservoirs on the Mokelumne River, Camache and Pardee Dams.
Since they built these two huge dams on the river, and the river is a salmon and steelhead trout habitat, East Bay MUD had to build a fish hatchery to mitigate the dam's effects. It seems to be working pretty well, with the returns from to the hatchery exceeded those found in nature. Maybe this will help take those fish off the endangered species list.
As we all know, I'm a nerd, so I think that looking at dams and hydropower facilities and fish hatercheries and learning how they operate is pretty cool. Doesn't hurt that I would love to work for East Bay MUD next year (fingers crossed!).
- see lots more pictures at flickr
Posted by dahl at February 28, 2005 11:05 AM
Well, I got a fish tank that has lots of fish. I am not so sure what a haterchery is, but it still has fish!