DESCRIPTION
This project was not completed as planned. Chelan County started design on new bridge but then found out they would need to design and build a bridge to meet WA Dept of Transportation specs and those costs would have exceeded the budget. The new construction cost estimate far exceeds the existing budget. The project was later resubmitted and completed as 18-1824 Rest, Mill Creek Fish Passage Improvement. See related projects
Original narrative:
The objective of the Mill Creek Passage project is to open 2.2 miles of perennial stream to provide access to spawning and rearing habitat on Mill Creek (RM 5.2 on Peshastin Cr.). Currently a 5'x4' box culvert with a 2.75% slope and 2' outfall drop at RM 0.1 on Mill Creek creates a complete barrier to fish passage. The project would remove this structure and replace it with a bridge to allow access to spawning and rearing habitat for adult steelhead and possibly spring Chinook and bull trout. Peshastin Creek is a Category 2 watershed and a Major spawning area for steelhead and minor spawning area for spring Chinook and a bull trout core area (UCRTT 2008). Peshastin Creek is disconnected from most of the floodplain and side channel habitat from the mouth to RM 9.4 (Ingalls Creek) and disconnected from the best potential tributary habitat, Mill Creek at RM 5.2, in that same reach. Mill Creek has perennial flow, drains a north and east facing basin, and has a relatively shallow stream gradient compared to nearby Allen, Hansel and Cama
The objective of the Mill Creek Passage project is to open 2.2 miles of perennial stream to provide access to spawning and rearing habitat on Mill Creek. Mill creek is a tributary to Peshastin Creek near RM 5.2. Currently, a 4’x5’ box culvert with a 1.5% slope and 2’ outfall drop at RM 0.1 on Mill Creek creates a complete barrier to fish passage. The project would remove this structure and replace it with a bridge to allow access to spawning and rearing habitat for adult steelhead and possibly spring Chinook and bull trout.
Peshastin Creek is a Category 2 watershed and a Major spawning area for steelhead and minor spawning area for spring Chinook and a bull trout core area. Mill Creek has perennial flow, drains a north and east facing basin, and has a relatively shallow stream gradient compared to nearby Allen, Hansel and Camas Creeks. Mill Creek offers a temperature refuge for fish in a section of Peshastin Creek that often reaches sub-lethal temperatures in late summer. Mill Creek has good riparian cover with few areas below 50% canopy cover, has moderate amounts of woody debris in the first 1.5 miles, numerous plunge pools of 1-2’ with some 3-4’ drops. Resident rainbow trout, O. mykiss gairdneri have been observed in Mill Creek.
This application is the same as PRISM #11-1444