Pahsimeroi Hatchery

P.O. Box 85
Ellis, ID 83235
(208) 876-4475

The Pahsimeroi Fish Hatchery, located near the town of Ellis, Idaho, is one mile upstream of the confluence of the Pahsimeroi and Salmon Rivers. Two rearing ponds are located at a separate location seven miles further upstream on the Pahsimeroi River.

Site Overview
Pahsimeroi Fish Hatchery is split into two locations. The main site consists of six buildings, two of which are residences for the full-time employees (a 1994 wood-frame home and a 1999 double-wide mobile home). The third building houses a garage, shop, and two-bedroom living quarters for temporary employees. The fourth contains the office, public restrooms, and an incubation room. The storage building has two sections: one for chemical and machinery storage, the other for nonchemical equipment storage. The final building is the spawning building. The upper site consists of a garage/shop, walk-in freezer, and a storage shed.

The fish production facilities include the following:

Main Facility

• Removable adult weir across the Pahsimeroi River.
• Fish ladder and 3 ponds (each pond measures 70 x 16 x 6 ft; two are for holding and the center one is considered the trap).
• Four raceways (100 x 4 x 3 ft) supplied by river water and limited (200 gpm) spring water.
• Incubation room with twenty16-tray stacks of Heath tray vertical-flow incubators supplied by pumped spring water.

Upper Facility

• Two 300 x 40 x 5 ft earthen rearing ponds supplied with water from the Pahsimeroi River.
• Two 300 x 40 x 4 ft earthen settling ponds located directly below the rearing ponds.

Holding capacity for the trap and holding ponds is approximately 2000 adult summer chinook and 5000 adult A-run steelhead. With 3 cfs of river water, the raceways can hold up to one million two-inch chinook fry. At inflows of 20 cfs, holding capacity in the two rearing ponds at the upper facility is one million summer chinook smolts. Incubation capacity is for two million chinook eggs and six million steelhead eggs.

Incubation water consists of specific pathogen-free (SPF) spring water, which is pumped to a 10,000-gallon holding tank and gravity fed to the incubators. The spring source can produce up to 200 gpm of 52 °F to 56 °F water.

The adult trap and holding ponds are supplied with water from the Pahsimeroi River through a 0.25-mile earthen intake canal. Water from the canal may also be used to supply the early rearing raceways. A water right for 40 cfs held by Idaho Power Company allows hatchery personnel to divert water from the Pahsimeroi River for hatchery operation. Water quality varies throughout the year. Water temperatures also vary from seasonal lows of 33 °F in the winter to seasonal highs of 72 °F in the summer. Daily fluctuations can be as high as 12 degrees.

Water for the rearing ponds also comes from a diversion in the Pahsimeroi River. A water right for 20 cfs allows a flow of 10 cfs per pond. The water is diverted down a concrete canal and flows through the ponds and into the settling ponds before being discharged back to the Pahsimeroi River.

Both intake canals are equipped with National Marine Fisheries Service approved rotating drum screens designed to prevent entrapment of wild chinook and steelhead from the river into the hatchery facilities.

Visitors
Visiting hours are from 8:00am to 5:00pm 7 days a week. If a group of people would like a tour we prefer they call ahead and schedule a time. Our number is (208) 876-4475. We also give tours to students and classes of all ages. Sorry, we don't have any on site fisheries.

Species Production
The hatchery was constructed in 1967 by Idaho Power Company (IPC) and is owned and funded by IPC. Hatchery operations and management is the responsibility of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG). The summer chinook and summer steelhead programs are IPC's mitigation obligation under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for anadromous fish losses caused by the construction and operation of the Hells Canyon Complex (Brownlee, Oxbow, and Hell's Canyon dams) on the Snake River. Due to the 1992 listing of Snake River summer chinook salmon (Onchorhynchus tshawytscha) as threatened under the Federal Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA), the Pahsimeroi Fish Hatchery has shifted from a fishery mitigation program to a supplementation-conservation program. The number of adult chinook salmon released into the Pahsimeroi River for natural spawning, as well as the number of those kept at the hatchery for artificial propagation, depends on marked and unmarked fish returns and their listing status. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) permits #922 and #903 authorize the direct and incidental take of listed, naturally produced and artificially propagated summer chinook salmon and steelhead.

The hatchery's mitigation goals are set for summer chinook salmon and for summer A-run steelhead. The following objectives are designed to help accomplish the goals:

• Rear 1.0 million summer chinook smolts for release into the Pahsimeroi River.
• Trap and spawn adult summer chinook returning to the Pahsimeroi Hatchery to produce 1.5 million green summer chinook eggs.
• Trap adult steelhead and produce 2.0 million steelhead eggs, incubate to the eyed stage, and transport eyed eggs to Niagara Springs Hatchery for rearing to smolt size.
• Work with management, research, and IPC to identify the most effective operating procedures and rearing strategies and develop the facility to enhance survival, fish health, and genetic diversity.