Oxbow Hatchery: Redesigned for the future

Overview:

Oxbow Hatchery, owned by Idaho Power Company (IPC), was built in 1961 after the completion of Oxbow Dam on the Snake River. Oxbow is the first of four mitigation hatcheries constructed by IPC to help in the restoration of salmon and steelhead runs on the Snake and Salmon Rivers in the northwest.

Why the new hatchery? 

Idaho Power Company has been working on plans to upgrade all four hatchery complexes which include Niagara Springs Hatchery, Pahsimeroi Hatchery, Rapid River Hatchery, and Oxbow Hatchery. A complete re-build of Oxbow Hatchery was needed to provide the infrastructure to complete not only current operations, but future operations proposed with the relicensing of the Hells Canyon Dam complex.

Who runs the hatchery? 

Idaho Power contracts Idaho Fish and Game to run operations. Oxbow Hatchery consists of one fish hatchery manager, and 18.5 months of seasonal time. A hatchery complex manager oversees Oxbow Hatchery and three other Idaho Fish and Game hatcheries. Fishery Bureau staff with IDFG, research staff (IDFG), genetics staff (IDFG), fish health staff (IDFG), hatchery production biologists and IPC maintenance workers are all vital to operations of the hatchery.

What are the highlights of the new hatchery? 

Idaho Power Company biologists toured several hatcheries in the Northwest to get ideas for the Oxbow Hatchery—which serves as a trapping, holding, and spawning facility for steelhead and salmon.

A river platform was constructed with two vertical 100 hp pumps to provide water to the raceways for adult holding. The platform is built to the 100-year flood level.

A two-story degassing tower is where well water and river water are pumped. It provides total supersaturated gas levels of oxygen and nitrogen back to equilibrium for the health of the fish.

Each of the 6- 10'x10'x100' raceways has an electric crowder. There is a roof, protecting equipment and fish. Fish can be put through PVC slide tubes from the sorting building to individual raceways. Sprinklers spray water through the raceway walls to calm fish and prevent them from jumping out.

A two-story spawning and sorting building allows elevation to send fish through tubes to the desired raceways and allows for trucks to be loaded with fish to release. 

A new building with a walk-in-freezer for spawn carci. These carci will eventually go to rendering plants or put back into streams as nutrient outplants. It has two vehicle bays, a shop, and a storage room.

A new office, incubation room, air cooled chiller, generator for backup electricity, and mechanical room.   

The incubation room can incubate over one million steelhead eyed eggs destined for Niagara Springs Hatchery or one million Chinook eggs for initial incubation at Rapid River Hatchery.

Two wells were reconditioned to provide 600 gallon per minute of pathogen free water for incubating eggs.

An electro anesthesia (EA) basket puts a mild electric current into the water to calm the fish for easier handling in the sorting building.

Retaining walls and landscaping was completed at the hatchery. Bathrooms and a visitor kiosk with interpretive signs will be completed at a later date. The entire compound was built at the 100-year flood zone. 

Updated electrical infrastructure, a new computer, hatchery alarm system, fencing, entrance gates and other security measures are now fully installed.

What’s the current mission of Oxbow? 

Oxbow traps summer steelhead below Hells Canyon Dam in the Hells Canyon Trap. Six hundred fish (300 males and 300 females) are held for broodstock, while any extras beyond broodstock go to tribal subsistence, Boise River releases for Idaho Fish and Game, or other stream outplants such as Hells Canyon Reservoir for Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Oxbow traps spring Chinook Salmon to aid with Rapid River Hatchery broodstock goals. Typically, about 300 spring Chinook are transported to Rapid River annually. Oxbow also helps Rapid River with spawn operations at Rapid River and initial incubation of about one million Chinook eggs in the Oxbow incubation room.

Chinook beyond broodstock goes to tribal distributions, the Boise River, other tribal releases such as releases into the Owyhee River for the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, or other prescribed Idaho or Oregon releases directed by the various salmon managers of the Columbia River basin. 

What is the main objective of Oxbow? 

Oxbow works with two other Idaho Power hatcheries with the goal of providing a steelhead or Chinook fisheries on the Snake and Salmon Rivers. Typically, 500,000 8-inch steelhead smolts of Oxbow stock are released below Hells Canyon Dam from the Niagara Springs Hatchery in March and 350,000 5-inch spring Chinook smolts of Rapid River Hatchery and Oxbow stock origin are also released below Hells Canyon Dam in March.

Who paid for the hatchery re-build? 

Idaho Power realized the need for major upgrades at Oxbow to be able to complete the current mission and future goals related to relicensing. Idaho Power Company funded the hatchery re-build which makes it one of the showcase hatcheries in the Northwest. Schnabel Engineering was awarded the contract for the design and IMCO Engineering & Construction got the bid for building the hatchery. Construction lasted about two and half years.

Is Oxbow Hatchery open to the public? 

The hatchery was closed to the public for safety during the re-build. It will be open to the public again at the start of January 2025 to walk-in visitors. School groups or larger tours need to be scheduled in advance. 

Come check out the new (and improved) Oxbow Hatchery!