Phase 1 has been completed in 2009. Overshot gates installed during 2009. An estimated 40K sockeye navigated over the gates during 2010. Automation of gate operation is scheduled to be installed this spring and gates operated for optimum fish passage conditions during 2011.

The Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA) and its project partners propose to construct fish passage at the dam and to install a fish screen on the irrigation canal located on the upstream side of the dam. Related to the ONA program for the Reintroduction of Sockeye Salmon into Skaha Lake (funded by Grant and Chelan County PUDs) construction of fish passage at McIntyre Dam is also expected to improve the downstream migration of juvenile sockeye out-migrating from Skaha Lake. The project would benefit sockeye steelhead and chinook salmon at all life stages including adult spawners fry and smolts. The proposed project would link many current fish enhancement projects in the Okanagan Valley including the Skaha Lake Sockeye Re-introduction program. The Okanagan Nation Alliance has in recent years been leading efforts to improve and increase habitat for sockeye and chinook salmon and steelhead trout in the Okanagan River and its associated lakes and tributaries. Part of this ongoing effort involves removing barriers to upstream fish passage in order to allow anadromous salmonids sockeye to have improved access to upstream portions of their historic range (4.4 miles) in the Okanagan River. These efforts are being undertaken using a cautious scientifically-defensible approach involving partnerships amongst all the relevant agencies.

Will benefit summer steelhead, sockeye and summer chinook