Three of the state’s eight hatcheries are undergoing major renovations, including its oldest facility in New Gloucester built in the 1940s and not updated since the early 1990s.
The other two facilities are in Grand Lake Stream, which is the most difficult to reach because of its remoteness, and in Embden, which was the state’s first round tank farm and had a major renovation in the early 2000s.
The state is using more than $25 million in one-time American Rescue Plan Act funding for the renovations, according to Richard Parker, engineering director for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. The updates to the hatcheries will be finished by the end of this year, he said.
The hatcheries play an important role in recreational fishing in the state by producing approximately 1 million fish that are released in some of Maine’s 6,000 lakes and ponds. The state primarily produces native brook trout and salmon, but also some non-native brown trout and rainbow trout. The outdated facilities made it difficult to comply with environmental and efficiency standards, according to DIF&W.
“We have had our eyes on these projects for a long time, but the ARPA funds have finally made it possible,” said Elizabeth Latti, director of the department’s fisheries and hatcheries division. “Being able to do these projects is monumental. Maine’s hatcheries are at the forefront of New England.”
Production in the Grand Lake Stream facility will be increased by more than 20,000 fish, but the DIF&W would not necessarily add waters to the list of those being stocked, Latti said. Adding waters requires an extensive review process that includes a public hearing.
What it could mean is that lakes and ponds that already are stocked could see more 2-year-old fish released in the fall. The 12-14-inch fish are popular with ice fishermen, she said.
Grand Lake Stream’s endemic strain of salmon grown in that hatchery is one of the cornerstones of the department’s stocking program for that fish. This expansion will help its success, she said.
The most expensive hatchery renovation will be Grand Lake Stream at $12,237,000, mainly because of the difficulty of getting equipment and materials to the remote hatchery, Parker said. The New Gloucester project will cost $10,829,350, while the Embden alterations will cost $2,369,750.
The improvements also will make it easier for the hatcheries to meet the Maine Department of Environmental Protections high standards for discharge permits, Latti said.
The New Gloucester hatchery still has earthen pools and the raceways are earth on the bottom with caging on the top to discourage predators, Latti said. Even with that precaution, the department typically loses about 25 percent of its fish to predation.
The upgraded facility with its round tanks and lack of access for predators will mean it will produce and release 25 percent more fish, just because of the lack of predation, she said. The hatch house will stay the same, but the raising facility will be upgraded, including microscreening the water coming in for pathogens and viruses.
Rainbow trout are hatched there and transferred to the Palermo hatchery to be raised. Brown trout are reared at New Gloucester.
“Maine is a stronghold of wild native brook trout, but people like diversity and different opportunities. We try to be the best stewards we can,” Latti said. Rainbows and browns are popular among anglers.
Three different construction companies are doing the work simultaneously.
Ganneston Construction of Augusta is installing two enclosed round tank pavilions, each holding eight large, round tanks, where fish will be raised in New Gloucester. The buildings are 68 feet wide by 122 feet 8 inches long. Ganneston also is building a new effluent treatment system that separates solids and liquids. The solids go to farmers and the clarified liquids go back into the stream, Parker said.
Doten’s Construction of Freeport is adding two round tank pavilions with four tanks each to increase production at Grand Lake Stream. It will have a water clarifier and a sludge storage tank. It also is installing two long closed raceways, a hatchery building and a water treatment building, similar to New Gloucester’s. The buildings will be 31 feet, 6 inches wide by 125 feet long. The tanks are 20 feet in diameter by 3 ½ feet deep, Parker said.
Apex Construction in Augusta is installing a clarifier and sludge storage tank at the Embden hatchery. It is one large pavilion of 96 feet wide and 256 feet long that holds 30 tanks, Parker said. That facility already has a water filter system.
The other five state hatcheries are in Enfield, Palermo, Augusta, Casco and Gray. All of them are open to the public. The Gray facility is especially popular because visitors can walk there from the Maine Wildlife Park, he said.
The public can learn what lakes and ponds the DIF&W stocks, with what fish and when on the department’s stocking report online.
