LEAVENWORTH, Wash. - The Bureau of Reclamation today released the final environmental impact statement for the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery Surface Water Intake Fish Screens and Fish Passage Project. Reclamation analyzed the effects of construction activities to rehabilitate, replace, and modernize the hatchery's water intake and delivery system on Icicle Creek.
The preferred alternative includes building new headworks, installing National Marine Fisheries Service-compliant fish screens, constructing a creek-width roughened channel, and replacing and lining the surface water conveyance pipeline to the hatchery. If selected, the preferred alternative is anticipated to result in benefits to Endangered Species Act-listed anadromous and resident fish and their habitats, while improving employee safety when operating and maintaining the intake and delivery structures, and increasing the reliability and longevity of the water delivery system.
The final EIS is a result of scoping comments received from other agencies, interested parties, and the public on possible alternatives to modernize the hatchery's surface water intake, fish screening, fish passage, and water delivery system.
The hatchery is one of three mitigation hatcheries established by the Grand Coulee Fish Maintenance Project to compensate for anadromous fish losses above Grand Coulee Dam. It is owned and operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and funded by Reclamation and Bonneville Power Administration. The hatchery raises and releases 1.2 million spring chinook salmon smolts annually into Icicle Creek.
Reclamation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plan to release a joint record of decision in April 2021 documenting which alternative evaluated in the final EIS will be selected for implementation. The final EIS is available for review on Reclamation's website at https://www.usbr.gov/pn/programs/leavenworth/swisp/feis.html
Source: Bureau of Reclamation
