The advisory committee will provide the input to ODFW staff, who will craft proposed administrative rules for commission consideration. Commissioners are expected to consider the rules next summer or fall. S.E. Evelyn St, Clackamas. A late night failure of a pump shaft at Salmon River Hatchery caused the loss of approximately 300,000 fish, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Almost all 80,000 Siletz summer steelhead smolts were lost and as many as 250,000 Siletz coho as well, according to Dave Anderson, ODFW Northwest Region Assistant Supervisor.
Pumps driven by electric motors provide fresh water to hatchery fish at the Salmon River Hatchery.
The motors are equipped with alarms to alert hatchery workers of a motor failure. In this case, the shaft connecting the motor to the pump apparently failed, allowing the motor to run. The pump stopped functioning without activating the alarm. Although fish kills in hatchery settings are not uncommon when disease or natural disaster strikes, the failure of a system of this kind is very rare, according to Anderson. The pump system is physically checked several times a day - in this case as late as 10 p.m. the night of the failure.