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Cada, G. F. (1998). Fish Passage Mitigation at Hydroelectric Power Projects in the United States. Pages 208-219 in M. Jungwirth, S. Schmutz and S. Weiss, eds. Fish Migration and Fish Bypasses, Fishing News Books, Vienna (Austria).

Recent efforts of the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Hydropower Program have focused on the mitigation of adverse effects of dams on upstream and downstream fish passage. An initial study of 707 recently licensed hydropower projects in the United States indicated that approximately 11% were required to provide upstream fish passage and 28% were required to provide downstream fish passage. Despite considerable effort to design and install fish passage devices, many projects had no detailed performance criteria and no performance monitoring requirements. A follow-up study examined the effectiveness of fish passage mitigative measures at 16 hydropower projects that had conducted performance monitoring. Fish ladders and lifts can be very effective in moving fish upstream past a dam; some of the case study projects were nearly 100% effective. Three of the 12 case studies with downstream passage measures have successfully increased the survival of downstream-migrating fish. However, in other instances the devices have failed or, more commonly, operational monitoring has not been adequate to make a judgement about their effectiveness. As an alternative to downstream fish passage screening, the DOE Advanced Hydropower Turbine Systems Program has begun a phased effort to design, build and test fishfriendly turbines, i.e. turbine systems in which environmental attributes such as entrainment survival, instream flow needs, and/or water quality enhancement are emphasised. Such turbine systems could allow the efficient generation of electricity while miniraising the damage to fish and their habitats.