Douglas County Public Utility District opened the 40-acre Wells Hatchery in 1967, adjacent to the Wells Hydroelectric Project. In 2012, DCPUD renewed its 40-year license to operate the Wells Hydroelectric Project. As part of the new license requirements, the existing hatchery facilities required significant upgrades, including footprint reconfiguration and expansion, to increase production capacity. Our team was tapped to serve as lead designer and prime consultant on this $35 million hatchery modernization effort.  

The hatchery was upgraded to accommodate the expansion of summer Chinook and summer steelhead, including up to three separate summer Chinook rearing programs, three conservation steelhead programs, and two harvest augmentation steelhead programs. Part of this expansion lead to the ability to increase production specific to the Southern Resident Orca population, which is primarily sustained by Chinook salmon. 

We provided biological rearing modeling, facility and groundwater assessments, useful life analysis of existing infrastructure, conceptual and final engineering design, stormwater mitigation, permitting, construction cost estimating, planning, and observation solutions. Our services also included supporting environmental permitting and documentation in fulfillment of state, local, and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regulations.

A carefully timed construction schedule had to be maintained to ensure the existing facility met the district’s annual production requirements throughout construction. As planned, all fishery obligations were met, and the construction schedule was successful. During the modernization, three new wells were added, the old spawning channel was removed and replaced with a modern rearing pavilion, trapping, holding, sorting, and spawning facility, waste collection systems, biosecurity was optimized, low-density rearing vessels were added, and dam safety was enhanced. 

The project was completed in late summer 2017, on time and $5 million under budget. As a result of this effort, the new hatchery brings the entire facility up to code and enables bio-secure annual production of more than 2.6 million fish.

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