Design of Large Cylindrical Fish Screens for the USBR Lower Yellowstone Project

As part of a pallid sturgeon recovery program, the USBR and USACE constructed a new state-of-the-art screened canal headworks facility for the Lower Yellowstone Irrigation District in Northeastern Montana.  The recently completed 1400 cfs intake facility will be integrated into a new diversion dam with a large natural-style fishway that is currently being designed for the site. The new facilities will reduce fish entrainment and open an additional 165 miles on the Yellowstone River for migrating fish.

The fish protection system consists of twelve, retrievable, 6.5-foot diameter cylindrical wedgewire screens with 1.75 mm slots. The screens are spaced along a 350-foot long riverbank headwall and seal over the intake’s submerged sluice gates. An automatic brush cleaning system keeps the screens from clogging. Physical modeling at the USBR Hydraulics Research Laboratory was used to finalize many of the project features and layout. The “on-river” screen design significantly reduced the facility footprint and allows diversions to occur over the river’s wide-ranging water surface fluctuations while keeping fish and debris in the river.

This presentation will focus on the design, construction, and hydraulics of the intake screen facility, as well as operational experiences to date.