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Hatchery rehab to be costly and lengthy |
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Wednesday, 23 July 2008 |
 Floodwaters last weekend completely destroyed the water intake infrastructure at the Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery, allowing the raceways (top of photo) to fill with mud and other debris, killing the entire fish population there. Photo courtesy Carma Roper, Inyo County Sheriff’s Department By Mike Gervais
Register Staff 7-22-2008
It will take some time – perhaps years – but the California Department of Fish and Game will be bringing the historic Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery back on line.
That was the news this week as the DFG continues assessing the damage and initiating extensive clean-up efforts at the facility in the wake of last weekend’s flood and mudslide that destroyed much of the hatchery, killed its entire stock of fish and brought operations to a screeching halt.
As flood waters charged down Oak Creek last Saturday, the wall of mud, water and debris flooded out the hatchery’s three raceways and two spawning sheds used to separate fertile trout eggs.
“All of the water intake infrastructure (flowing from both forks of the creek) was completely destroyed,” said Bruce Ivey, vice president of Friends of the Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery. “It will be a long time before it is replaced or repaired so the hatchery can get back into service.”
Though the display pond on the east side of the hatchery grounds was unaffected by the floodwaters, the damage to the water intake system at Mt. Whitney stopped the flow of fresh water into that pond. “As a result, all the fish there died,” said Ivey.
It is estimated the flooding claimed as many as 2,800 trout at the Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery.
Luckily the historic main building of the hatchery was unscathed by the mudslide.
The California Conservation Corps (CCC) has dedicated between 20 and 30 crew members to the clean-up effort at the hatchery, the California Department of Corrections has assigned inmate work crews to the task and a six-man crew from the DFG is also on hand helping to clean up and assess the damage.
Though community support has been great, and many residents have come forward to help with the clean-up work at the historic hatchery, “the magnitude of this job is far more than a volunteer effort can handle,” said Ivey, and the state is supplying the manpower to get things back in order at the hatchery.
“I feel very positive about the DFG’s attitude at this time. Fortunately, the DFG needs this hatchery to meet their commitments to (Assembly Bill 7) and their commitment to provide fish,” Ivey said. “They would like to continue operations at Mt. Whitney, but cost studies and engineering studies must be done. There are decisions that still need to be made, and they are quite a ways away from that.”
Even though clean-up efforts began as soon as the flood waters receded enough for relief workers to get to the hatchery, it may be years before the facility is returned to its full operational capacity.
Ivey predicted that it may take the state up to six months to fully assess the damages caused by the flood; six more months for engineering plans to be drawn for the work; and several more months for contracts to be drawn up and for restoration work to begin.
Though no cost analysis has been completed on damages or rehabilitation work at the hatchery, Ivey said the consensus is that it will take several million dollars to get the facility up and running again.
“I think we would be fortunate to see this hatchery in operation in the next year or two,” said Ivey.
Currently the clean-up effort at the hatchery is focusing on the three concrete, 10 by 300 feet raceways where brood stock trout are held.
Because the raceways are concrete and almost level with the ground, “it’s just a case of digging out the rocks and mud and tree limbs,” Ivey said, noting that the raceways were completely filled with debris during the flood. “A huge amount of material came down off that mountain,” he said.
The CCC workers and DFG crews are using hand shovels and back hoes to dredge out those raceways.
Next, crews will either begin focusing their attention on fixing the fresh water intake to the hatchery via Oak Creek, or the reconstruction of the hatchery’s two spawning sheds.
The final step in the effort to rehabilitate the hatchery will be work on the display pond.
“The display pond was not flooded, but the water has been shut off, and as a result, all the fish there have died and the pond is dry,” Ivey said.
The trout lost at the Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery “were primarily brood stock and the hatchery was already on limited operations because the DFG recognized the possibility of a catastrophe as a result of the fire,” Ivey said.
The Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery’s primary function was in egg production, as the waters there are too cold to actually rear trout.
After eggs were harvested from Mt. Whitney, they were then taken to the Hot Creek and Blackrock hatcheries, where the trout are raised before being released into local waters.
“Hopefully (the DFG) will be able to produce eggs elsewhere and supply the other hatcheries,” Ivey said. He added that the DFG has yet to make any decisions regarding how those other hatcheries will make up for the loss of egg production as crews work to get Mt. Whitney back on line.
If in that decision-making process the state decides to cease its operations at the Mt. Whitney facility, there is a chance the property and structure there would be returned to the residents of Independence.
“The people of Independence donated the grounds to the state for a fish hatchery, and if it is no longer being used for the purpose it was donated for, then the people of Independence can request the legislature to donate it back,” Ivey said.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 14 August 2008 )
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