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MARK HENCKEL COLUMN Plan offers peek at proposals for new fish hatchery at Fort Peck A draft environmental assessment for the proposed Fort Peck Fish Hatchery has been released for public comment which sheds a little more light on plans for the facility to be located below Fort Peck Dam.
The proposed hatchery would include about 54 acres of rearing ponds, a main hatchery building, about eight raceways and three permanent residences. The hatchery building would have a visitor's center, hatchery operations area, office space, crew bunk facilities, a maintenance area, storage space and raceways for the fish. Most of the rearing ponds would be about an acre in size, with some larger and some smaller. About 56 ponds in all would be constructed. Water used by the hatchery would be a combination of Missouri River water and groundwater pumped from wells. It would utilize about 5,000 gallons of water per minute – approximately 11.14 cubic feet per second – but virtually all that water would be returned to the Missouri River. Fish that could be raised at the site would be used to stock Fort Peck Lake and other waters throughout the state and, when available, could be used in other states as well. The production goals that are possible for such a hatchery are impressive. They include 50 million walleye fry, 2.5 million walleye fingerlings, 2.5 million sauger fry, 500,000 sauger fingerlings, 55,000 tiger muskie fingerlings, 150,000 northern pike fry, 10,000 northern pike fingerlings, 55,000 channel catfish fingerlings, 500,000 chinook salmon fingerlings, 80,000 largemouth bass fingerlings and 35,000 smallmouth bass fingerlings. According to Gary Bertellotti, hatchery bureau chief with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the estimated cost of the hatchery would be about $18.7 million for construction and design. "Federal legislation has been written and heard in committee. The congressional hearing took place in Glasgow with Sen. Burns, Sen. Baucus and Sen. Crapo of Idaho there. From their perspective, there is an excellent chance of this legislation passing," Bertellotti said. "Public support at the hearing on April 29 was tremendous," he added. Bertellotti said that as plans stand right now, the design and construction of the hatchery would be completely paid by federal dollars. Montana State Warm Water Fishing Stamp money was used to help develop the conceptual design and cost estimate for the hatchery. "One other issue is the operations cost for the hatchery," he said. "That would cost around $300,000 to $325,000 per year. We're hoping for a cost-share on that with the funds generated from the Warm Water Stamp. We'd use that money as our cost-share. They are trying to include the rest in the federal legislation." The $5 Warm Water Stamp, required on most Central Fishing District and Eastern Fishing District waters in Montana, is expected to generate between $125,000 and $150,000 annually. Bertellotti said the federal legislation would authorize the construction and the appropriations to fund it. The Senate expects to consider that this year. "It's all dependent on passage of the bill. If it passes this year, the design phase would start in 2001. It would take approximately nine months to finalize the design and put everything together," he said. "By early 2005, we'd have it operational. "As it's proposed right now, the new hatchery would be comparable in size and production capability to the Miles City Hatchery," Bertollotti said. "With the exception that this hatchery would have space for native species production and rearing and holding facilities for pallid sturgeon, an endangered species." For copies of the Environmental Assessment and Draft Finding of No Significant Impact for Fort Peck Fish Hatchery, write to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, ATTN: CENWO-PM-AE (Randal Sellers), 215 N. 17th St., Omaha, Neb. 68102-4978. A copy is also available for public review at the Glasgow City County Library. The comment deadline on the environmental assessment is June 15.
Mark Henckel is the outdoor editor of The Billings Gazette. His columns appear Thursdays and Sundays. He can be contacted by phone at: (406) 657-1395, or by e-mail at: henckel@billingsgazette.com
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