The Kalama Falls hatchery is an aging facility. It is supported by Mitchell Act funding, which comes from NMFS. Unfortunately, NMFS doesn't like hatcheries, so they have not budgeted any increases in Mitchell Act funding in 15 years. And without NMFS support, Congress has difficulty putting it in their budget. Congress has difficulty putting money into a Federal agency's budget if that agency doesn't ask for it (which means they don't need it). Unless you're the Dept of Defense. They get lots of toys they didn't ask for.

Rep. Norm Dicks managed to get a one-time add of $10M or so to the hatchery budget a couple years ago, but that was spent on making changes so the hatcheries could be ESA compliant (for example, take note of the multi-million dollar weir on the Kalama River, just downstream from Modrow Bridge). But since then, no increases have been forthcoming for deferred maintenance. So the facilities slowly erode. At some point, equipment fails and fish die, by the thousands. The only solution is to reduce production for a few years, and use the money for rehab. That means eliminating hatchery production in exchange for better equipment. At some point, that's what needs to happen.

Ideally, WDFW can back-fill the Kalama Falls hatchery with coho from the North Fork Lewis River, or the Cowlitz. Sometimes, WDFW will take more eggs than it can handle, in anticipation of a catastrophic loss somewhere else in the system (e.g., Kalama Falls hatchery). But I don't know if they took extra eggs at these other facilities, but they certainly had more than enough adult coho last fall to get as many eggs as they wanted, and then some........

With 105,000 adult coho back to the Cowlitz hatchery last fall they could have taken more extra coho eggs than ever, if they had some place to put them.

Speaking of potential for failure, the Cowlitz hatchery system is dependent on a system of pumps for its water supply and back up generators too.

Sadly, most hatcheries are dependent on pumps and generators for life support. In our enthusiasm to build hatcheries over the past 50+ years, we have built them in places where fish culture can be difficult, labor intensive, and expensive.

Face it, finding a gravity-fed, disease-free water source is almost impossible. So, our hatcheries rely on pumping either surface or ground water, and extensive treatment to ensure disease outbreaks are minimized. That amount of infrastructure carries considerable risk. Pumps fail, power is interrupted, the water source is contaminated (e.g., oil spill), equipment wears out and is not replaced, humans make errors, and stuff happens. It's a risk that comes with hatchery management. Not an ideal situation, but that is the world we live in, here in the PNW. The answers include fewer hatcheries, more O&M funding, development of better water sources, and of course, lower expectations by the various user groups, including recreational anglers, such as me.........

You can say that Again!