The Front Royal Fish Hatchery is renovating several structures and laying the groundwork for a smallmouth bass farm, thanks to funding from a legal settlement between the Commonwealth of Virginia and the chemical firm of EI Du Pont de Nemours and Co.
As part of the $42 million settlement from 2017, the Front Royal Fish Hatchery will receive up to $10 million for renovations, said Brendan Delbos, state hatchery superintendent who works in Henrico County.
Renovations will include a new hatchery building and a new water intake system to filter and clean water before it comes to the facility. Staff are also planning on researching better ways to raise smallmouth bass for restocking Passage Creek, which runs through the hatchery property.
The facility was well known for producing walleye and other species of fish, Delbos said.
“On a regular annual basis, we produce a lot of fish out of that facility,” he said.
The facility has also experimented with smallmouth bass, which he called “notoriously difficult to raise.”
Delbos said he’s looking forward to having the new equipment on site and producing more fish to benefit area anglers.
The settlement, according to the Commonwealth of Virginia’s website, naturalresources.virginia.gov, happened after “DuPont released mercury, a toxin that causes adverse effects in fish and wildlife, from its former facility in Waynesboro” between 1929 and 1950.
“The mercury continues to affect fish and wildlife along the South River and South Fork Shenandoah River watershed,” the site explains.
“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Secretary of Natural Resources (the Trustees) worked cooperatively with DuPont to assess potential impacts, and the Trustees proposed a settlement that includes over $42 million for restoration projects. The United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia approved the settlement on July 28, 2017. The Trustees are now working to implement the best projects to benefit the injured natural resources across the impacted watershed.”
Summit Environmental Services LLC of Evansville, Indiana, is the general contractor.
"This is kind of a DuPont project that benefits the department," Delbos said.
Work so far has focused on breaking ground and removing trees from the property, he said.
“We had hoped for this to begin at the latest a year ago in the spring,” he said. However, the delay is typical of large projects, he explained.
“Now that ground has broken, we’re hopeful that we’ll be wrapping up in about 18 months.”
October 04, 2020 at 12:09PM
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Fish hatchery breaks ground on new Front Royal facility - Northern Virginia Daily
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