Albeni Falls Dam Fish Passage Facility Project was authorized in 1950 under the original authorization for construction of the dam. Once construction of the dam began in 1952 and the river became segmented, upstream fish movement came to a halt, while downstream volitional (deliberate) fish passage continued. Just a few years after construction was completed in 1955, as noted in the 2000 BiOp, bull trout numbers in the Pend Oreille River drastically and abruptly declined from a once healthy population, to the point where individual fish captured or encountered were considered noteworthy.

Bull trout are native and were listed in 1998 under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The fish passage facility, as documented in the Post-Authorization Decision Document and Environmental Assessment (PADD-EA), is intended to reestablish upstream habitat connectivity which will allow bull trout populations access to over 750 miles of mainstem, tributary and lakeshore critical habitat for foraging, spawning, and overwintering; essential to their life history and survival.

The fish passage facility will increase overall genetic diversity and resilience within regional bull trout populations, while also providing access to over 125 square miles of abundant food sources and cold-water habitat in Lake Pend Oreille. The proposed FPF is crucial for reestablishing the currently extirpated (completely eliminated) population of bull trout between Albeni Falls Dam and Box Canyon Dam.

The fish passage facility is planned to be a trap and haul facility with an entrance structure, attraction pool and a presort pool that leads to a fish lock. Bull trout will then be transferred to a sorting facility where they will be hauled upriver via truck transport for release.

Without fish passage at Albeni Falls Dam, the downstream bull trout population may never fully recover, and any bull trout that is entrained or moves downstream through the dam on their own volition, will continue to have a small chance of survival due to the lack of sustainable thermal refugia and restricted access to upstream natal spawning streams.

If the fish passage facility is not completed, Albeni Falls Dam will be the only upstream fish passage barrier in the Pend Oreille River and Clark Fork River basins, once non-Federal dams above and below AFD have installed fish passage as a condition of their respective Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) licenses.