Governor Christine Gregoire's news conference
on the cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation
Seattle, Washington
November 14, 2005
Comments by WDFW Director Jeff Koenings

I would like to take this opportunity to explain the value of the Hanford Reach area to Washington's natural resources and to the state's economy, in particular wild Columbia River chinook salmon.

The Hanford site is located next to a free-flowing stretch of the Columbia River. This 50-mile stretch is the only free-flowing section of the river in over 500 miles from Bonneville Dam to above Lake Roosevelt.

The Hanford area is unique and important to salmon because it is the only section of the mainstem Columbia River where the environmental conditions necessary to produce a healthy, wild population of salmon have been maintained and recently enhanced.

The Hanford area produces the largest population of wild salmon in the Columbia Basin. These wild fall chinook are one of only three healthy and non-ESA listed Columbia River chinook populations in Washington, Idaho, and Oregon.

These wild Hanford salmon provide recreational and economic benefits to Washington, Oregon, and Alaska, as well as to four treaty Indian tribes. Their continued health is an important element of our nation's international fishery treaty with Canada.

To put this wild chinook salmon population in perspective: During the most recent three years, the salmon returning to spawn naturally in the Hanford area have numbered from 65,000 to 80,000 fish, and have deposited over 100 million eggs in the gravel each year. Another return of this magnitude is spawning in the Hanford area now as we speak-un-polluted, contaminant-free water is critical to the success of incubating salmon eggs.

This level of production is equivalent to several Columbia basin hatcheries - but unlike hatcheries, there are no public operating costs other then maintaining the appropriate environmental conditions in the river. The PUDs of Chelan, Douglas and Grant counties have worked hard with WDFW to ensure proper flow regimes downstream of their hydraulic facilities.

Because Hanford Reach fall chinook are healthy and produce large numbers of adult fish, they provide significant harvest and economic benefits to many communities and Indian tribes along their migration path from Alaska to the interior Columbia Basin.

For example, last year the Columbia River produced over 500,000 upriver bright stock chinook adults. Over half of these fish were Hanford wild salmon. These fish provided major commercial and sport fishery harvest opportunities in the Columbia River and in the Pacific Ocean.

In the Columbia Basin these wild Hanford salmon are the focus of sport and commercial fisheries in the late summer and fall, and are a key component in a federal court-ordered catch sharing agreement between Indian and state fisheries.

Last year's harvest of healthy upriver bright fall chinook in the Columbia River was over 90,000 fish, with individual fish ranging from 10 to 40 pounds.

These Columbia River chinook fisheries are estimated to generate more then $20 million dollars to the Northwest economy each fall, with millions more generated in spring and summer ocean fisheries in Alaska, Washington, and Canada.

In the Columbia River sport fishery alone, the return of these wild salmon draw about 200,000 angler trips per year and provide economic benefits to many communities from Astoria, Oregon to Tri-Cities, Washington as they travel over 350 miles up the river.

When considering the fact that there are now listed fish populations in every sub-basin of the Columbia River, it is clear why the continued health of this valuable natural resource is a priority for fish and wildlife agencies throughout the Northwest.

The health and production level of these wild Hanford fall chinook are also one of the key indicators used to evaluate the success of the Pacific Salmon Treaty between the United States and Canada.

It is imperative that the federal government continues its commitment to protect fish and wildlife in the Hanford area, and assure funding is secured to complete the Waste Water Treatment plant and finish the Hanford clean up.

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