I think this issue has everyone concerned. I was at the salmon hatchery 3 weeks ago killing an hour as I was on business and not fishing that day. Walking up to the fish viewing area at the hatchery, I struck up a conversation with one of the employees who was sorting late winter-runs and the few spring chinook that had shown so far. He mentioned that there were plans in the works to completely re-design and modernize the salmon hatchery. He went so far as to say they would like to flatten the place and start over.

It seems when the hatchery came on line in the early 60's it was state of the art. But, state of the art then is not state of the art now......The design of the facility is a nightmare for disease. This has been realized the hard way with ever-diminishing returns of spring chinook(among other species). He indicated the re-design WOULD happen and was hopeful Tacoma PUD would foot the bill.

I read this as a temporary reduction in production with possible huge gains down the road with improved hatchery technology. That's the optimistic view. On the other side of the coin, WDFW has not been open with the public about this(they claim to have had countless public meetings down there but I didn't hear of this until word got out Koenigs had signed on). Based on past performance, I'm am also skeptical as any project done like this behind our backs usually has a bad result.

I don't know what to think. The PUD's written committment to mitigation seems iron-clad. I just can't believe they would be stupid (or arrogant) enough to flush this fishery down the toilet when so many people have a stake in it.

Time will tell!