Impingement and Entrainment of Fishes Within a High Volume-Low Velocity Deep Water Intake System on Lake Michigan

ABSTRACT

We determined the extent of fish entrainment and impingement for a low velocity-high volume Lake Michigan water intake system where the entrance of the intake system occurred in deep waters. There was no evidence of any fish entrainment probably because of the location of the entrance to the water intake system. Fish impingement was also low and comparable to the lowest impingement found for power plant intakes. The number of impinged fish was 93 fishes for 58 sampling dates from April 23 to November 13. Of the 93 fishes, 61 were alewives, 11 were yellow perch, an the remainder included black crappie, black bullhead, bloater, bluegill, emerald shiner, johnny darter, pumpkinseed, slimy sculpin, and spotfin shiner. The impact of this intake systemon the fish community was insignificant, since the estimated total of impinged fishes during the operating season of the intake was 280.