By Lois Henry, SJV Water
It could cost $27 million, or more, to revamp and reopen the Kernville hatchery as a Kern River rainbow trout breeding facility, according to a report commissioned by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Costs would be less to rehab the hatchery as just a fish planting base but neither the report nor CDFW had estimates for that lesser function.
In either case, those amounts are separate from what CDFW is already spending to rebuild about a mile-long siphon to bring Kern River water into the hatchery. The siphon project is expected to cost $7 million and be completed in 2027. The report’s findings floored several Kern River advocates who hadn’t even been aware of the existence of the report, which was completed by the McMillen engineering firm in February 2025.
“$27 million! Can you say boondoggle?” was one Kern River fishing enthusiast’s reaction.
Hatchery is key
Beyond the stunning dollar amounts, the report included a raft of findings that were equally surprising, according to Brett Duxbury, who has been frustrated by CDFW’s lack of support for a grassroots effort to require more water be left in the river below the Fairview Dam.
A large chunk of river flows is taken out at the dam and piped 16 miles downriver to Southern California Edison’s power plant at Kernville, known as KR3. The plant is in the process of being relicensed by the Federal Regulatory Energy Commission (FERC). That license, which will include plant operating parameters such as minimum river flows, will span 50 years.
Duxbury, along with the Kern River Fly Fishers, Kern River Boaters and others, is asking FERC to mandate Edison leave more water in the river below Fairview for the ecological health of the river, which they say has been left in an artificial drought state by Edison for decades.
CDFW has stated Edison’s flow proposal, which would dedicate 40 to 45 cubic feet per second to the hatchery, is adequate.
The department has instead focused on the siphon that brings water from KR3 to the hatchery. They have said the siphon and establishing a broodstock program at the Kernville hatchery are imperative to protect and replenish the native Kern River rainbow trout, which is now a “species of concern.”
Too hot to fish…
The McMillen report, however, says relying solely on Kern River water siphoned to the hatchery actually prevents year-round use because the water is too warm for trout.
The hatchery would need to use water from groundwater wells, install chillers and recirculation equipment to run colder water through fish races for a breeding program.
That level of upgrading would cost about $27 million. Adding a photovoltaic system in order to adhere to the state’s net zero energy goal would bump that amount by $14 million, according to the report.
The report also notes the amount of effluent produced by the hatchery historically hasn’t needed a pollution discharge permit. Ramping up as a broodstock facility, though, would likely require new permitting.
If all those expensive upgrades were made, it would result in a breeding program capable of producing about 200 pounds of Kern River rainbow trout, according to the report. Before being shuttered in 2020, the hatchery was used primarily as a planting base and stocked an average 80,000 pounds of fish.
The hatchery could be rehabbed as a planting base again, with trout trucked in from elsewhere. But the report states it could still only be used November through June as the rest of the year would be too hot for the fish.
Duxbury said the report confirms his group’s contention that taking flows from the river — particularly in summer or during dry years – for the hatchery doesn’t help native fish.
“The hatchery was never a feasible means to refurbish the Kern River Rainbow Trout,” Duxbury said after reading the report. “It now seems like a cover, a false issue, for the department to justify Edison’s proposed flows.”
Hatchery is key
Jay Rowan, head of CDFW’s fisheries branch, acknowledged the Kernville hatchery would require “significant additional work” to bring it up to the level needed for a broodstock program. Additionally, he said, the department is still working on a new Kern River rainbow management plan, which was originally written in 1995.
That 1995 plan actually calls for higher flows below Fairview Dam to help the native trout but CDFW now says the hatchery is the key and that section of river isn’t suitable habitat for the Kern River rainbow.
“The plans on file show the revamped Kern River Hatchery in Kernville is being designed to have incubation and early-rearing capacity indoors, with a small, year-round captive broodstock program for Kern River rainbow trout,” Rowan wrote in an email.
Rowan wrote that the McMillen report was commissioned to give CDFW a picture of the current state of this, and other hatcheries, and provide recommendations for possible future upgrades with a range of costs. It is a not construction plan, he wrote.
Any refurbishment to the Kernville hatchery would likely be phased in over time, meaning “it could be functional in its past role as a planting base for significantly less work and funding than what is outlined in the McMillen reports,” Rowan wrote.
It’s unknown how much it would cost to rehab the hatchery as a planting base.
“Never functioned as designed”
But repairs would be substantial, according to the report.
The hatchery was closed from 2016 to 2019 for “major renovations.” It reopened briefly in 2019 and closed again in 2020 after the aging siphon became inoperable. It then suffered major flood damage in 2023.
Based on invoices SJV Water received from CDFW under a public records request, those 2016-19 repairs cost about $1.5 million and included new fish tanks, raceways, generators and a flood system.
The McMillen report found that several of the those raceways “..have leaked since they were rebuilt. However none of the raceways have been utilized since completing improvements in 2018.”
The report also states that five groundwater wells were installed at some point in the past, separate from the 2016-2019 repairs and at an unknown cost. Only four were found by McMillen engineers.
“Historically, the wells never functioned as designed and were rarely used,” the report discovered.
All of those findings plus the fact the hatchery sits in flood and fire zones had fly fisher Jim Ahrens shaking his head.
“I don’t see any value in it at all,” Ahrens said of spending more money on the hatchery.
