Eight new raceways will be built west of the existing ones toward the lower end of the Hotchkiss National Fish Hatchery property. The hatchery received $1.5 million in stimulus funds. According to Adam Mendoza, hatchery project leader, the new raceways should be completed by this summer and operational next year. There will be enough money to build covers over the raceways to keep bird predation down.

The funding is provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

Boise, Idaho-based McMillen, LLC received the stimulus funds for several projects to include building new fish raceways and converting old ponds into effluent ponds.

Adam Mendoza, hatchery project leader, said the project was planned and in the system, but had never been funded because of its high dollar price tag. “When the money was available, they were looking for projects sitting in the system for some time and those were the ones they grabbed first. Since we had most of the paperwork and the red tape of the project accomplished, this was one of the projects picked,” Mendoza said.

Hotchkiss has 32 raceways and six earthen ponds used for raising fish. New raceways will replace the ponds. The six shallow ponds lack permanent lining, which results in water-loss and exposes fish to predators and potential disease. Creating deeper, lined raceways to replace the ponds will mitigate those issues.

Workers will convert the ponds into effluent treatment. These effluent ponds will filter nitrates and phosphates — created by fish waste — to keep them from inundating the river where the hatchery releases water. The facility presently meets Environmental Protection Agency regulation compliance, but may not meet future standards without such a system. Lining these ponds lowers the risk of diseases as they have the potential of entering the facility through the soil and moving through the facility’s system.

Weatherproof structures over the raceways will add additional protection from predators and from the elements. New asphalt roadways on the hatchery will accommodate service vehicle traffic.

The project should begin in the spring and finish in early summer.

“These projects will improve the quality of water placed back in the Gunnison River, as well as create construction jobs in the community,” said Secretary Salazar. “This will benefit Coloradoans for generations to come.”

“The improvements to Hotchkiss are very important because they will help the facility continue to meet EPA standards while helping us to improve our fish production capability,” said Steve Guertin, regional director of the service’s eight-state Mountain-Prairie Region. “The stimulus funds are a blessing because we can address potential future issues right away and avoid incurring added costs down the road. These projects are vital to helping the hatchery to accomplish its mission for the future.”

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 gave $3 billion to the Department of the Interior. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife received $280 million in stimulus funds.

Facts about the Hotchkiss Hatchery:

• The hatchery, which hosts over 7,500 visitors annually, participates in local public fishing festivities, such as the annual Huck Finn Days fishing derby for children in July.

• The facility consists of a hatchery building with a small visitor center and tank room, residences, 32 outdoor concrete raceways, 24 nursery tanks, and six earthen ponds.

• It is part of the National Fish Hatchery System, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service established to restore native aquatic populations, mitigate for fisheries lost to federal water projects, provide fish to benefit tribes and National Wildlife Refuges and recover species listed under the Endangered Species Act.

• The service built the facility as part of the Colorado River Storage Act of 1956. The act created irrigation projects and dams, including. The hatchery raises trout to mitigate the loss of native fish populations due to the dams.

• The Tommy Dowell Spring, created in the 1930s by an earthquake near Salt Lake City, feeds the hatchery. The spring has a constant water temperature of 56 degrees Fahrenheit and flows from 2,200 to 5,000 gallons per minute, providing the ideal conditions for trout production.

• The facility sends water from the hatchery to the North Fork of the Gunnison River, where it eventually makes its way to the Colorado River.

• The service moves the fish to outside raceways when they reach 1-1/2 to 2 inches in length to grow to the proper size for stocking.

• In 2000, Hotchkiss National Fish Hatchery produced and distributed over two million trout and stocked over 80 different water areas in Colorado and New Mexico.

• The stocking efforts result in 200,000 angler days of recreational fishing in Colorado and New Mexico valued at over $10 million.

• The regional life support system, which allows transportation of large numbers and weights of fish over long distances, consists of 24 electric aerators and two liquid-oxygen bottles weighing 600 pounds each. The vehicle that transports the fish handles the load of seven normal-sized trucks. An average load of 5-inch fish numbers 124,000 fish weighing 6,300 pounds. The service uses this vehicle for stocking large reservoirs with fish throughout Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota.

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