Priest Rapids Hatchery Operations and Maintenance Annual Report: July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016

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 2016 was 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 PRH. Beginning in 1992, 1.7 million sub-yearling fall Chinook smolts have also been reared and released at PRH (50 fpp), as part of USACE John Day Mitigation, for a total release of 7.3 million smolts. Up to 13.5 million eggs are taken annually to meet all PRH production goals and for other programs, including the 3.5 million JDM sub-yearling smolt release program at Ringold Hatchery.

PRH is staffed with four full-time hatchery specialists, three career-seasonal hatchery technicians (10 months) and four seasonal technicians (4 months). Seasonal staff is utilized during trapping, spawning, and rearing to handle heavy workloads.

Trapping of returning fall Chinook salmon takes place approximately one mile south of the main facility, and fish are transported by truck to the adult holding ponds. Three adult ponds are used for hatchery returns and one adult pond is utilized for wild fall chinook, which come from the Priest Rapids Dam Off-Ladder Adult Fish Trap (OLAFT) and by the [volunteer] Angler Broodstock Collection program (ABC). 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 via fish pump to raceways, where they are introduced to feed and raised until marking occurs. Once marking starts fish are then moved to the five rearing ponds for final rearing and then released in June.

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, 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 have been used by GCPUD for rearing of study fish in the base of the old adult holding pond.