The Idaho Fish & Game (IDFG) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have been working together since 1991 to prevent sockeye salmon species extinction through the Snake River sockeye captive broodstock program. The program also provides treaty and sport harvest opportunities by increasing the numbers of sockeye salmon in the Snake River. At typical operating capacity, the Springfield Sockeye Hatchery could produce one million sockeye salmon smolts for release in the Upper Sawtooth Basin, resulting in an anticipated delisting from the endangered species list. McMillen Jacobs was originally retained to prepare the master plan and preliminary design for the hatchery production facilities which are located on a 54 acre site located near Springfield, Idaho. Within this initial work effort, the hatchery bio-programming, conceptual design, construction and operating costs, and site investigations were completed. The completed master plan documents were then submitted to the Northwest Power Planning Council and the Independent Scientific Review Panel (ISRP) for final approval. The approved project budget was set at $13.69 million within the master plan document.

McMillen Jacobs subsequently were retained to complete the design-build of the hatchery production facilities. Within this contract, the final plans and specifications, design report, groundwater well investigations, and project permitting were completed. Value engineering analysis was completed throughout the project design development to ensure the optimum project configuration was developed within the budget. The project construction was completed using McMillen Jacobs’ construction crews supplemented by specialty subcontractors. The hatchery construction was completed in 14 months delivering the operating facility within the original masterplan budget of $13.69 million.

The hatchery construction included:

• Demolition of existing hatchery building, concrete raceways, excavation of over 30,000 cubic yards of soil, and pre-loading of the hatchery building site to address fatty soil consolidation issues.
• Development of 6 new high production wells and refurbishment of 4 existing wells to provide a groundwater water supply of 50 cfs.
• Extension of existing power lines ½ mile to provide the hatchery power supply to the site as well as two diesel standby generators with an installed capacity of 0.75 megawatts.
• Construction of over 1 mile of HDPE water supply pipelines ranging in size from 12 inch to 42 inch from the wells to a central headtank structure.
• Reinforced concrete headtank fitted with counterflow blowers providing air stripping removal of total dissolved gases. The subsurface conditions required founding the headtank on a micropile foundation drilled to the rock line at a depth of approximately 65 feet.
• Construction of a new 17,400 CMU block administration building which housed a 3400 sf administration area, incubation room, early rearing tank room with 22 fiberglass rearing tanks, water treatment room, egg preparation room, laboratory, and visitors area with viewing window.
• Twenty two new reinforced concrete raceways 95 feet long by 9 feet wide and 6 feet tall fitted with fish screen panels and vacuum cleaning system. The entire raceway complex was covered with a pre-engineered metal roof and enclosed with steel mesh fencing to exclude avian predators.
• New 2400 sf shop building housing a fish feed freezer, wood shop, vehicle shop, and storage area.
• Remodel of existing shop building to provide new onsite hatchery storage.
• New settling pond to remove fish waste from drain the hatchery drain water prior to discharge.
• Truck wash and disinfection station.
• Three new residences with two car garages.
• Site utilities including potable water well, domestic commercial septic system, storm drainage, roads, fencing, and landscaping.
• Complete site SCADA and instrumentation system.
• Full startup and commissioning services including development of the detailed operations and maintenance manual.