Igiugig RivGen® Power System

The Kvichak River is home to one of the world’s largest sockeye salmon populations. Igiugig Village heavily relies on this resource for subsistence and livelihood. Because of the importance of the local salmon population, a robust Fish Monitoring Plan was incorporated into the Igiugig Hydrokinetic Project FERC License. Part of the Fish Monitoring Plan incorporates the use of video monitoring during priority salmon adult and smolt (juvenile salmon) migration periods as the Kvichak River is a shallow and very clear environment where video monitoring can be completed. As part of this monitoring effort, IVC and ORPC work with an Adaptive Management Team (AMT) made up of regulators and resource managers from federal and Alaska state agencies as well as technical resource experts from universities and national labs. The AMT is the mechanism for discussing monitoring requirements based on data collected and findings, and for decision-making, including any changes to the monitoring approach. After undertaking monitoring for several years with no documented collisions and no evidence of RivGen device impact to adult sockeye salmon, the adult salmon monitoring requirement was removed from the Fish Monitoring effort in 2022 per consultation with the AMT and in accordance with the annual Alaska Department of Fish and Game Fish Habitat Permit issued for 2022/2023 (ADF&G 2022). The risk of Project impact to adult salmon has been retired, however, IVC, ORPC, and the AMT continue to monitor and assess project operations during the smolt out-migration period.

In accordance with project licensing consultation and FERC’s Issued Environmental Assessment (2019), there are no threatened or endangered species, critical habitat, or essential fish habitat in the Project area and the Project does not impact marine mammals or historic properties.