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21st Century Dam Design
Advances and Adaptations
31st Annual USSD Conference
San Diego, California, April 11-15, 2011
On the Cover
Artist's rendition of San Vicente Dam after completion of the dam raise project to increase local storage and provide
a more flexible conveyance system for use during emergencies such as earthquakes that could curtail the regions
imported water supplies. The existing 220-foot-high dam, owned by the City of San Diego, will be raised by 117
feet to increase reservoir storage capacity by 152,000 acre-feet. The project will be the tallest dam raise in the
United States and tallest roller compacted concrete dam raise in the world.
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resources;
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Large Dams (ICOLD).
Providing Fish Passage 1319
PROVIDING FISH PASSAGE AT THE MIDDLE FORK NOOKSACK RIVER
DIVERSION DAM

Lawrence M. Magura
1
, P.E., D. WRE
Clare Fogelsong
2


ABSTRACT

Since 2002, the City of Bellingham, WA has been seeking a solution to a dilemma about
how to restore fish passage at the site of their diversion dam on the Middle Fork,
Nooksack River. The problem was created when the diversion dam was constructed in
1960-61 with no provisions included in it for fish passage. Different options for
resolving the fish passage problem have been considered over the intervening years by
the City and are discussed in this paper. These options include the addition of a fish
ladder to the dam, and a river engineering concept that would have allowed the dam to be
partially removed and river water diverted through a new intake structure. These
previous concepts failed for various technical feasibility and economic reasons. The
Citys search for a feasible solution has now turned to consideration of a siphon-based
diversion system coupled with a partial removal of the dam. The current status of the
siphon option is discussed.

INTRODUCTION

The City of Bellingham, Washington (2010 population, 80,055) constructed a diversion
dam and tunnel project on the Middle Fork of the Nooksack River in the early 1960s to
divert water into Lake Whatcom, the Citys primary municipal source of water supply to
supplement the existing Lake Whatcom resources. The City is located on Puget Sound,
about 90 miles north of Seattle, Washington, and 21 miles south of the U.S. Canada
border, as shown in Figure 1, Project General Vicinity Map.

The diversion dam is located at the head of a steep and narrow gorge on the Middle Fork
Nooksack River on the heavily forested western slopes of Mt Baker in northwestern
Washington, about 20 miles south of the U.S. Canada border. The diversion dam site, is
shown in Figure 2, and is characterized by steep forested slopes, a boulder and cobble
streambed with numerous bedrock outcrops, and a steep pool and cascade channel
morphology.


1
Principal Water Resources Engineer, Black & Veatch Corporation, Lake Oswego, OR 97035,
maguralm@bv.com
2
Manager, Environmental Resources, Department of Public Works, City of Bellingham, WA 98225
cfogelsong@cob.org
21st Century Dam Design Advances and Adaptations 1320

Figure 1. Project General Vicinity Map

When the diversion dam was constructed between 1960 and 1961, there was little
awareness in the community of either fish passage issues or the looming decline in
Pacific Northwest salmonid stocks. Therefore, no fish passage provisions were included
in the design of the 30 foot tall by 150 foot long concrete gravity dam. Completion of the
dam and diversion tunnel in 1961 therefore cut off approximately 9 miles of potential
salmon habitat river channel. There are no definitive written records of salmon being
present in the upper Middle Fork Nooksack watershed prior to completion of the dam.
However, anecdotal information from Native American oral sources indicate that
anadromous fish were present in the upper watershed


Figure 2. Project Site Vicinity Map
Providing Fish Passage 1321
before European settlement began in the area in the 1850s. Fisheries biologists have
generally concluded that anadromous fish could have been present in the upper reaches of
the Middle Fork of the Nooksack River before European settlement and that salmon
could survive there today, if they could somehow get past the barrier to fish passage
created by the diversion dam (see Reference 2). The Middle Fork Nooksack River
Diversion Dam is shown in Figure 3.

By the beginning of the 21
st
Century, the dam and diversion gate structure were starting
to show the ravages of time from the cumulative effects of more than 40 Washington
Cascades winters. The cumulative abrasive effects on the concrete dam spillway of the
pulverized rock flour entrained in the river water derived from Mt Bakers alpine
glaciers had, over 40 years lowered the spillway crest by nearly a foot. The need to
repair and rehabilitate the facility had become readily apparent. By that time also, the
prevailing public sentiment in this former timber, shipping, and fishing town, now reborn
as a highly desirable, cosmopolitan university town that was rapidly attracting new
residents from throughout the Puget Sound region and beyond, had been transformed by
the environmental movement. A strong community desire to remove this barrier to
Salmon passage by either adding a fish ladder to the existing dam, or constructing a new
diversion facility that would not require a diversion dam for its operation, had firmly
taken root. The Bellingham City Council made elimination of this barrier to fish passage
a priority for the City, and City staff formed a partnership with two local Native
American tribes, the Nooksack Indian Tribe, the Lummi Nation, and the Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife to search for a cost effective workable solution.


Figure 3. M. F. Nooksack River Diversion (Dam is partially obscured behind trees on
the left side of the picture)
21st Century Dam Design Advances and Adaptations 1322

Figure 4. View downstream into the highly confined M.F. Nooksack River Gorge below
the diversion dam



Figure 5. Middle Fork Nooksack River Diversion Dam Spillway showing scour damage


Providing Fish Passage 1323
SEARCHING FOR A SOLUTION, PART 1: ADD A FISH LADDER TO THE
DAM

Planning for renovation of the Nooksack Diversion Dam, including the addition of a fish
ladder, began in earnest in 2001. By 2002, a team of consultants had evaluated several
alternative configurations for how a fish ladder could be constructed in the narrow gorge.
A preferred alternative configuration for the fish ladder was selected, and is shown in
Figure 6. A cost estimate for constructing the fish ladder and rehabilitating the dam and
diversion sluice gate structure was also prepared. The recommended fish ladder
configuration and dam project, including a fish screen to prevent downstream migrating
juvenile Salmon fry from entering the diversion channel and tunnel, had an estimated
price tag of about $10 million (2002 dollars). This figure significantly exceeded the
available funds that the City could allocate to the project at that time.
Figure 6. Fish Ladder Concept for the Middle Fork Nooksack Diversion Dam


Concerns about the additional annual cost of maintaining the dam with a fish ladder,
coupled with the lack of sufficient budget authority to cover the cost of construction,
forced the City to consider alternative ways of addressing the engineering, construction,
and long-term maintenance and access challenges posed by the challenging site. One
tantalizing alternative concept that first emerged during the fish ladder feasibility studies
was the concept of re- engineering the river channel at the dam site so that water would
flow into the existing diversion tunnel by gravity through a new intake without a
diversion dam.

21st Century Dam Design Advances and Adaptations 1324
SEARCHING FOR A SOLUTION PART 2: RIVER RE-ENGINEERING AND
PARTIAL DAM REMOVAL

Beginning in 2004, the City authorized their consultant team to evaluate the feasibility of
permanently modifying the river channel so that the diversion dam could be partially
removed for fish passage and water would flow by gravity into a new intake facility built
upstream of the existing diversion dam. Under this concept, a buried penstock would
connect the new intake to the existing diversion tunnel, which would continue to function
as it had historically. The concept would require removal of the southern portion of the
existing diversion dam and sluice gate and the construction of a new massive concrete
abutment and intake structure a couple of hundred feet upstream of the dam near the
middle of the channel. A key element of this concept was to re-engineer the section of
the river channel immediately downstream of the new intake/abutment structure. A field
of several very large (up to Volkswagen size) dunite boulders lodged in the channel
would be permanently secured to the bedrock channel to help dissipate energy in the high
velocity channel. The stabilized boulders would help reduce flow velocity to below the
upper threshold that upstream migrating salmon could successfully negotiate (about 8
ft/sec.) and also help concentrate and deflect flow through the breach in the diversion
dam.

A 1:25 scale physical model of the partial dam removal with a new abutment/intake
structure concept was constructed in the Vancouver, B.C. hydraulic laboratory of
Northwest Hydraulic Consultants (NHC) in the fall of 2004. Testing of the concept over
a wide range of flows was done during the winter of 2004-2005. Figure 7 shows the
physical model of the concept undergoing evaluation testing. Model results reported by
NHC in May 2005 confirmed the basic feasibility of the concept over the wide range of
flow conditions tested.

Based on the favorable results of the proof-of-concept physical modeling of the partial
dam removal with a new abutment-located intake structure, the City then authorized
NHC to prepare a preliminary engineering report and construction cost estimate for the
concept. The preliminary engineering report and cost estimate was completed by NHC in
May 2006. The resulting report presented a preliminary design concept for the project
based on the physical modeling study and included a preliminary cost estimate for
construction, including design engineering costs, of $15,766,000.

By the fall of 2006, the City decided to take the next logical step and prepare final design
documents for the partial dam removal and new abutment and intake structure with
penstock concept. The City then retained a design team led by the Lake Oswego, Oregon
office of Black & Veatch Corporation for this purpose.

The first step in the design development process was to conduct a week-long design
charette and value engineering (VE) study of the river engineering/partial dam removal
concept and verify the preliminary construction cost estimate. The VE team met during
the last week of February 2007 and carefully reviewed all of the available information on
Providing Fish Passage 1325
the concept. The original preliminary cost estimate was indexed for inflation to
$16,700,000 in 2007 dollars and closely scrutinized.



Figure 7. Proof of Concept Physical Model of the Re-engineered River Channel
and Abutment Intake Structure in Action

Following their mandate from the City, the VE team carefully analyzed the project from
a number of different perspectives:
fluvial geomorphology
fisheries habitat
constructability
cost
design feasibility

The VE team uncovered a number of issues that they felt had not been adequately
addressed in the preliminary design report, such as overall project constructability,
geotechnical complexities of the project site, and unreasonably low estimates for several
elements of the preliminary construction cost estimate. The net effect, after several value
engineering suggestions were incorporated into the design and the cost estimate was
adjusted to address these missing elements and other items that were not adequately
21st Century Dam Design Advances and Adaptations 1326
developed in the preliminary design report, was a revised preliminary project cost
estimate of $22,500,000.

In addition to the dramatic increase in estimated construction cost, the VE team also
expressed concerns with some aspects of the overall design concept, particularly
regarding how the large energy-dissipating dunite boulders could be reliably secured to
the bedrock channel of this high-velocity stream. At this point, the project went into a
hiatus, while the City and their teaming partners huddled to reconsider their options. The
hiatus lasted from May 2007 until August of 2009, when the City asked the Black &
Veatch team to evaluate a new design option for the project that had not been previously
considered.

SEARCHING FOR A SOLUTION, PART 3: SIPHON DIVERSION CONCEPT

In August 2009, the City approached Black & Veatch and requested an initial evaluation
of a new intake concept that, if implemented, would allow the City to eventually transfer
ownership of the diversion dam over to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who would
then take responsibility for its removal, thereby opening up the Middle Fork of the
Nooksack River to salmonid migration.

The new concept evaluated by the Black & Veatch team consists of converting the
existing gravity diversion into a pressure siphon by inserting a pipeline into the 8,863
foot long existing gravity diversion tunnel and connecting it at the upstream portal of the
tunnel to a down-turned formed suction intake siphon hood. The siphon will terminate in
a fish screen-equipped intake structure that would be anchored into the bottom of a
bedrock scour pool that has formed over the years immediately downstream of the
diversion dam ogee spillway section. The siphon would be equipped with an electrically-
powered priming pump and valve setup to provide priming. A water level-activated
vacuum pump would also be provided to remove accumulated out-gassed air bubbles that
could otherwise accumulate to a point where an air blockage would disrupt the siphonic
action. Electrical power for this concept would be supplied by a new power cable
installed through the diversion tunnel to the diversion site.

The new siphon intake would be equipped with a fish-screened intake mounted inside a
sturdy vault structure to protect it from floating and suspended debris transported by the
high-velocity flow that exists in this reach of the river. Since the difference in elevation
between the diversion tunnel inlet invert and the normal water surface elevation in the
scour pool is typically only about 15 16 feet, and the tunnel floor gradually descends
from that point to its western downstream portal, a carefully designed, pump-primed
siphon should theoretically be capable of working. This concept would also include
extending the pipe downstream of the downstream diversion tunnel portal some distance,
perhaps several hundred feet, to take advantage of the fall in the natural terrain at that
location to develop additional change in elevation to help improve siphon performance.

In April 2010, the City of Bellingham executed a new contract with Black & Veatch to
conduct a detailed feasibility study, including development of a new proof-of-concept
Providing Fish Passage 1327
physical model, for the tunnel/siphon concept. A preliminary conceptual design report for
the siphon concept was prepared and approved by the City and its project partners on July
7, 2010. Figure 8 shows a schematic depiction of this concept from the July 31, 2010
Preliminary Conceptual Design Report prepared by Black & Veatch.

The feasibility study and a Basis of Design Report will be completed by June, 2011. At
press time, work was underway on the construction and testing of a 1:20 physical scale
model of the

Figure 8. Schematic Layout of Proposed M. F. Nooksack River Pressure Siphon Concept

siphon concept and a 1:10.5 physical scale model of the river intake structure in the
Vancouver, British Columbia, hydraulics laboratory of Northwest Hydraulic Consultants.
Preliminary modeling results received as this paper was going through final revisions
indicate that the siphon diversion concept is feasible. Remaining modeling work will
help to define hydraulic loses through the diversion siphon system and optimize the fish
screen inlet configuration, diversion pipeline diameter optimization, and other design
details.

The 2004 physical modeling studies showed that complete removal of the existing
diversion dam is not necessary to ensure successful fish passage. Only about a third of
the dam spillway structure and the slide gate and diversion sluice gate will need to be
removed. A final design phase is anticipated to follow shortly after the completion of the
feasibility study, which would set the stage for putting the project out to bid in 2012. The
City has indicated that they can only afford to have the diversion shut down for
21st Century Dam Design Advances and Adaptations 1328
construction for a maximum of one year, which will therefore require simultaneous
construction of the new intake and ancillary facilities and the siphon pipeline inside the
existing gravity diversion tunnel.

Once the new diversion siphon facility has been completed and placed into service, the
City plans to transfer title to the existing diversion dam to the Seattle District, U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers (USACE), who will then be responsible for actual removal of the
diversion dam and appurtenances. No firm schedule for dam removal has been
developed yet. City staff estimates that it may take 2 to 3 years after the new siphon-
based diversion facility has been placed into operation and the diversion dam has been
transferred to federal government jurisdiction for USACE to obtain project funding,
complete removal plans, obtain needed permits, and advertise the project for bids. Actual
dam removal is expected to be completed within a single construction season.

REFERENCES

Nooksack Diversion Structure Feasibility Study, Bellingham, Washington, Volumes 1
and 2, prepared by Harding ESE, Bellevue, WA, December 31, 2001

Middle Fork Nooksack River, Water Supply Diversion Dam Conceptual Fish Ladder
Design, Final Submittal, by Northwest Hydraulic Consultants, Harbor Engineering, and
Montgomery Watson Harza, Seattle, WA, September 2002

Middle Fork Nooksack River Project Intake Alternatives Hydraulic Model Study, Draft
Final Report, by Northwest Hydraulic Consultants, North Vancouver, B.C., May 2005

Middle Fork Nooksack River, Water Supply Diversion Dam New Intake Preliminary
Design, Final Submittal, by Northwest Hydraulic Consultants, Seattle, WA, May, 2006

Middle Fork Nooksack River Passage Project, Charette/Value Engineering Study, Final
Report, by JGJ, LLC, Seattle, WA May 4, 2007

City of Bellingham, Middle Fork Tunnel Intake Feasibility Study, Phase 1 Preliminary
Review Report (Draft), by Black & Veatch Corp., Lake Oswego, OR, September 25,
2009

City of Bellingham Middle Fork Tunnel Intake Feasibility Study, Preliminary Conceptual
Design Report, Black & Veatch Corp., Lake Oswego, OR, July 31, 2010