The Methow Valley Irrigation Districts (MVID) diversion is located on the Methow River at river mile 44.8. The MVID East Diversion Modification Project reduces impacts to endangered Upper Columbia River (UCR) spring Chinook, threatened UCR steelhead and threatened Columbia River bull trout by improving the fish bypass, protecting the fish screens from flood flows, and reducing the need for annual in-water excavation by the irrigators. This final phase of the MVID-east project modifies the existing diversion intake structure and canal, headgate, sediment wasteway, and fish screen bypass. Previous efforts at the site include installation of new fish screens and fish bypass (2004) and removal of a channel-spanning diversion dam and dam foundation (2007-8). The 2009 project further improves the ability of the MVID East facility to divert water at low flows while reducing in-water maintenance needs. This project also improves the function of the existing fish bypass, and by improving sediment management, should increase the lifespan of the moving plastic-belt fish screens by decreasing wear.

The MVID East Diversion Modification Project includes the following work elements:
- Construct new river intake and trash rack;
- Replace existing open earthen intake canal with new paralell 36-inch pipes;
- Modify existing headworks and construct sediment wasteway;
- Modify existing fish bypass facility;
- Restore areas disturbed by construction.
The present diversion dam is being bypassed by the main river channel as it migrates to the west in a side channel. This channel must be blocked each year using heavy equipment to create a inchpushupinch dam with large river cobble to maintain flow into the canal. As a result 1/2 mile of side channel habitat is dewatered for much of the year. The project would remove the present diversion structure and rebuild it in a location upstream of the side channel blocked by the pushup dam. The new structure would incorporate fish passage, eliminate the need to use heavy equipment instream and allow natural re-watering of the side channel. This project proposes to remove the present channel-spanning irrigation diversion dam and replace it with a reinforced earth and rock wing dam parallel to the thalweg. This project will also re-open 1/4 mile of side channel habitat blocked by a pushup berm. The 1948 diversion dam has been identified as a partial passage barrier to listed salmonids and bull trout in the Methow Basin.
Initial phases of the project included removal of 2/3 of the width of the existing wood crib diversion dam Objectives: 1. Immediate fish passage improvement 2. Reduce width of main river channel (improve width/depth ratio) 3. Increase reliability of adequate flows required for fish passage 4. Reduce annual disturbance to river from irrigation structure maintenance 5. Increase riparian vegetation cover by riparian buffer establishment 6. Reduce loss of woody debris by excluding it from intake canal (boom will direct lwd into the main river channel where it will remain).