A three-year study from 1998 to 2000 was performed at the Wells Hydroelectric Project on the Columbia River, Washington, to assess compliance with the Habitat Conservation Plan survival standard for project passage equal to or greater than 0.93 for salmonid smolts. For annual juvenile project survival estimates to be valid, the Habitat Conservation Plan requires the studies to measure the survival of juvenile fish migrating through the reservoir, forebay, dam and tailrace associated with a project. It also requires the study to take place during the normal smolt migration period (April—May). Valid survival estimates must also have estimated standard errors (SEs) less than or equal to 0.025. Paired release-recapture studies using PIT-tagged yearling Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and steelhead (O. mykiss) smolts produced successive annual survival estimates of 0.997 (SE = 0.015), 0.943 (SE = 0.016), and 0.946 (SE = 0.015) with a three-year mean of estimated survival of 0.962. A 10-year follow-up study to determine continued compliance with the survival standard produced an estimate of 0.954 (SE = 0.013) in 2010 using PIT-tagged yearling Chinook salmon smolts. The Wells Project was the first hydroproject in the Columbia-Snake River Basin to meet its survival standard for outmigrating salmonid smolts, and Public Utility District No. 1 of Douglas County was also the first to subsequently conduct and successfully meet a 10-year recertification.