By Bob Cox, Mountain Valley News staff
It may sound a little odd that allowing water that contains fish excrement to flow into the Gunnison River violates environmental rules, but that is one of the big reasons for the recent refurbishing of the Hotchkiss National Fish Hatchery.
The hatchery is a facility of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and began rearing fish in 1969. Water comes from the nearby Tommy Dowell Spring, which was brought to the surface by an earthquake centered near Salt Lake City in the 1930s. The spring has a constant water temperature of 56 degrees and is reused several times at the hatchery, but cannot be dumped into the Gunnison without violating EPA standards.
Until recently, the hatchery consisted of 32 outdoor concrete raceways and 6 earthen ponds, all designed for the raising of rainbow trout that are stocked in waters all over the West. It is one of the few hatcheries in Western Colorado to have consistently been considered to be whirling disease free, and thus has become a very important part of the hatchery system.
The hatchery was the recent recipient of just over $1.1 million dollars from the American Recovery Act to add one bank of eight reinforced concrete raceways and to rehabilitate the earthen ponds. The ponds are being completely rebuilt and lined. The effluent pond will be upgraded so the water can be transferred into the Gunnison River.
McMillen LLC, a company based in Boise, Idaho is the lead contractor for the project. American Contracting from Fort Collins is doing much of the pond work.
“They (the contractors) are on schedule and maybe even a little ahead,” said hatchery manager Adam Mendoza recently. He said the raceways are almost complete and the area is being prepared for asphalt. The ponds have been emptied and are being lined with concrete.
