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[jesievans]

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[usfwspacific]

Teamwork, quick thinking averts disaster at Dworshak hatchery

Courtesy of Eric Barker, Lewiston Tribune 

A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Employee inspects a salmon egg tray at the Dworshak National Fish Hatchery. Photo credit: USFWS

A recent power outage came perilously close to wiping out at least one year of fishing for steelhead and spring chinook on the Clearwater River. At about 9:30 p.m. on Nov. 5, a Saturday, a power transformer failed at the Clearwater Power Co. Ahsahka Substation. In addition to leaving residents in nearby communities like Orofino, Peck and Ahsahka itself without electricity, it idled pumps that feed Dworshak National Fish Hatchery with water. When millions of fish don't have a constant supply of fresh water, they quickly deplete the available oxygen and suffocate. By the time an auxiliary power feed was rerouted to the hatchery to bolster back-up generators that were trying but failing to keep the hatchery supplied with a sufficient volume of water, Complex Manager Steve Rodgers said juvenile spring chinook were starting to "roll over." "We came extremely close to losing the whole juvenile fish program," Rodgers said. "Probably within an hour of major losses."

In the end, about 5,500 juvenile spring chinook died. But that is a tiny fraction of the roughly 5 million fish there. Rodgers credits Clearwater Power for working furiously and creatively to route a residential power feed to the hatchery, and to his staff for working well into the wee hours of Nov. 6 to run the backup generators and ensure what had been a limited water supply was reaching all of the different raceways and holding ponds. Rodgers also commended several state, tribal and federal agencies that worked cooperatively on contingency planning had things not worked out as well as they did. Plans were drawn up to truck fish to other hatcheries, such as the nearby Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery, the Lyons Ferry Hatchery in Washington and the Oxbow Hatchery near the Hells Canyon complex of dams. Clearwater Hatchery officials were preparing to share some of their water that is delivered via gravity from Dworshak Reservoir and not reliant on pumps. "All the bureaucratic B.S. got out of the way so we could keep the fish moving and have contingency plans," he said. The hatchery's six pumps that draw water from the North Fork of the Clearwater River continue to operate on a combination of the residential feed and backup generators. The Bonneville Power Administration sent a mobile transformer that will serve as a contingency substation for up to a year while the failed transformer is either rebuilt or a new one is constructed to replace it. David Hagen, general manager of Clearwater Power, said the BPA equipment was installed Wednesday and Thursday and should be up and running by today. He also credited cooperation between agencies for helping to restore power to the hatchery. "It's really been a multi-agency effort and everyone has come to the table and been very helpful," he said. --- Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.