Priest Rapids Hatchery Operations and Maintenance Annual Report: July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014

Priest Rapids Hatchery (PRH) was designed as a mitigation facility for fall Chinook after Priest Rapids and Wanapum Dams were constructed, and is funded by the Grant County Public Utility District (GCPUD) and by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for the John Day Mitigation (JDM) portion of the production. It has been in continuous operation since September 1963, and is operated by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). It is part of the WDFW’s Priest Rapids Hatchery Complex, which also includes the Ringold, Meseberg, Naches and Columbia Basin hatcheries.

The annual release goal for GCPUD in 2014 is 5.6 million sub-yearling smolts (at a target size of 50 fish per pound or fpp) or 112,000 pounds. All of the trapping, spawning and rearing takes place at Priest Rapids Hatchery. Beginning in 1992, 1.7 million sub-yearling fall Chinook (50 fpp) smolts have also been reared and released at Priest Rapids Hatchery as part of USACE John Day Mitigation. Up to 13.5 million eggs are taken annually to meet all PRH production goals and for other programs, including the 3.5 million sub-yearling smolt release program at Ringold Hatchery.

PRH is staffed with three full-time hatchery specialists, one career-seasonal (9-month) hatchery specialist, and three career-seasonal hatchery technicians. The seasonal staff are utilized during trapping, spawning, and rearing to handle heavy workloads. These seasonal employees are also required to live in the PRH bunkroom during egg and sac-fry incubation when assigned to emergency standby. This allows them to provide an immediate response to alarms, as housing for full-time employees on standby is located twenty minutes from the hatchery.

Trapping of returning fall Chinook salmon takes place approximately one mile south of the main facility, and adult fish are transported by truck to the adult holding ponds. One of the adult holding ponds is utilized for wild fall chinook which are collected from the Priest Rapids Dam off ladder adult fish trap (OLAFT) and by anglers participating in broodstock collection. Spawning occurs adjacent to the holding ponds, and eggs are transferred by buckets to the incubation room in the main hatchery building. After hatch, fish are transferred by truck to raceways, where they are introduced to feed and reared until they reach marking size. Once marking starts fish are then moved to the five rearing ponds for final rearing culminating in a June release.

In addition to the incubation room, the main building is comprised of two offices, three bathrooms, conference room, electrical room, mechanical room, fertilization room, lab room and feed room. Other buildings on station include a walk-in freezer and utility room, a large shop with two semi-open covered bays for storage and enclosed shop area. There are seven wells providing 6,650 gallons per minute of pathogen-free well water, a river-water intake, three degassing towers, and a multitude of other plumbing and electrical buildings. Eight raceways and two holding areas used by the PUD for rearing of study fish in the base of the old adult holding pond may possibly be utilized by WDFW in the future.