A planned power outage at a fish hatchery near Eureka killed 160,000 fish on Sunday after a backup generator for the hatchery’s pumping system failed to activate.

Hatchery personnel were aware of the outage planned by Lincoln Electric Cooperative, said Eileen Ryce, state hatchery bureau chief for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

“We did know about the power outage but our backup generator did not come on. The generator was recently exercised, so we had no reason to believe the generator would not come on,” Ryce said.

The outage early Sunday morning shut down water pumps at the Murray Springs State Fish Hatchery just outside Eureka. The hatchery is supported entirely by pumped water and the pumps were off for about 3 1/2 hours. 

About 160,000 fish were lost, including 30,000 yearling (7- to 8-inch) Gerrard rainbow trout that were destined for Lake Koocanusa, 47,000 young-of-the-year (2-inch) Redband rainbow trout primarily for lakes in the Eureka and Libby area, 2-year-old future Redband brood fish that will impact next year’s Redband spawn, 6,000 2-year old (10-inch) westslope cutthroat trout destined for Holland and Lindbergh lakes and about 50,000 young-of-the-year (2.5-inch) Eagle Lake rainbow trout.

“It wasn’t a total loss,” Ryce said, noting there were about 35,000 survivors in the outdoor raceways, plus eggs and fry being reared inside the hatchery building also survived.

Some of the impacts from the loss of cutthroat and rainbow trout will be mitigated by surplus fish from other state hatcheries. 

However, stocking in the Eureka and Libby area will be impacted for the next two years.

Ryce said the Corps of Engineers provided a backhoe to dig a pit at the hatchery site to bury the dead fish, which are estimated to weigh about 12,000 pounds.

Murray Springs State Fish Hatchery is a mitigation hatchery for Libby Dam and is co-managed by Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.