Oregon farmers design a breakthrough for fish, growers alike

[depakid]

A newly patented fish screen appears to protect fish and make money.
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Floods racing off Mount Hood in 1996 nearly destroyed the little Farmers Irrigation District. Its water intakes in the Hood River Valley were in ruins. The small hydroelectric plants that brought in revenue were shut down.

"We were broke," says Jerry Bryan, the district's project manager. "We were fundamentally bankrupt."

The district then did something more befitting NASA or Intel than a bunch of tapped-out apple and pear growers. It launched its own research and development program, employing high-tech design tools and computational fluid dynamics. The goal: Build a better fish screen.

The district wanted a screen that would keep protected salmon out of irrigation intakes while reducing exposure to damaging debris.

Today the district has patented a screen design that could promote a revolution in fish protection while saving farmers time and money. The design is innovative in its simplicity: Unlike traditional screens installed across the Pacific Northwest it has no moving parts and cleans itself.

The new screen freed the district from costly maintenance that almost sank it. No longer do its screens clog with glacial silt washing off Mount Hood, and they're safe from destructive floods. Now the district is making money.

A curious group from New Zealand flew in this year to see how the screen works and is interested in installing some.

The irrigation district launched a nonprofit to take what it calls the Farmers Screen commercial and reinvest the proceeds into rural communities.

"Our deep, dark secret is that taking care of fish makes us a lot of money," Bryan said. "Screening became the key element to our fiscal success."

More: http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1218684316158480.xml&coll=7

[eppur_se_muova]

1. K&R! nt

[hunter]

2. Wow. This one has got me thinking.

:thumbsup:

[Nihil]

3. What an excellent idea! (K&R) (n/t)

:toast:

[ColbertWatcher]

4. This is what happens when counter-productive GOP-practices are replaced with ...

... American ingenuity.

Wonderful link, thank you for posting.

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. Of course a Republican might say

"This is what happens when you let the market innovate, rather than having the government legislate." (Or something to that effect.)

[Nederland]

7. And that

Is one of the rare instances when Republicans would be right. Of course, they would forget that the implementers were a local government organization.

[ColbertWatcher]

10. ... And then their heads would explode! n/t

[phatkatt]

5. So humans and fish really can co-exist peacefully?

:P

[phantom power]

8. That's a cool design they came up with.

[OKIsItJustMe]

9. How it works…

http://farmerscreen.org/pageview.aspx?menu=6206&id=21482

How it works

WHAT IT IS: THE FARMERS SCREEN is a horizontal fish and debris screen that has no moving parts and is self-cleaning under normal operating conditions. The Farmers Screen was developed through a decade of trial and error and research and development by farmers, irrigation district employees, engineers, and many others.

The Farmers Screen has been installed in a variety of site conditions and flow ranges. The Farmers Screen has performed well under heavy organic (leaves, sticks, etc.) loads and very heavy silt loads and in diversions with very wide flow ranges. Most current installations have ESA species present, many have multiple ESA species present.

The Farmers Screen meets or exceeds all state and federal agency criteria for fish protection. Three separate studies have been performed on the effectiveness of the Farmers Screen and all three have shown it to be effective for all life stages of anadromous fish.





…

(Follow the link for a very good presentation.)

Beautiful design! Just beautiful.