LEAVENWORTH — Federal agencies on Tuesday officially made public their plans to undertake a multimillion-dollar remodel of the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery. The plan is already drawing sharp local opposition.

More than 200 people attended afternoon and evening informational meetings on the project Tuesday at the Enzian Inn in Leavenworth.

Regional officials from the federal Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service led the pair of two-hour sessions.

People in the crowd questioned many things, including the accelerated timeline. They also asked why there is a need to dam Icicle Creek at a time when locals are working to make it more free flowing.

As they fielded a barrage of questions, agency officials outlined how they plan to upgrade the hatchery’s deteriorating water system. Their plan calls for moving the current water diversion from Icicle Creek to a new location closer to the hatchery, and building a large pumping station to replace the current gravity feed system.

A new weir, or dam-like structure, would be built across the creek to make sure the pumping station has enough water at all times.

The plan also calls for tearing out and replacing an old dam that blocks water from flowing freely into a creek channel that was cut off when the hatchery was built in the 1930s.

Last spring, the Bureau of Reclamation received $19 million in federal stimulus dollars to replace the water system. The agency has since received additional appropriations to pay for the replacement of the old dam, known as Structure 2.

Local opposition to the project centers around the fact that the agencies are not preparing a full environmental impact statement on the proposal. Instead, they are doing a less comprehensive environmental assessment, and relying on information gathered during a 2002 EIS on a separate plan to remove fish-rearing structures in the old creek channel.

The environmental assessment is expected to be released to the public before the end of the month.

Opponents have hired lawyers and environmental consultants.

“They’ve designed the whole project to take care of the hatchery at the expense of the river,” said environmentalist Harriett Bullit on Tuesday.

Nick Gayeski of the Wild Fish Conservancy said Tuesday his organization and several other opponents of the project are prepared to take legal action to stop the project if necessary.

Ron Eggers, project leader for the Bureau of Reclamation, called the assessment a “stepping stone.” If it finds any significant environmental impacts, a more detailed study will be done.

He said the agencies are working quickly on the project because requirements for the stimulus funding require work to be under way before the end of 2010.

“There are several things that could cause this project to fall out of the stimulus funding,” he said.

But Jana Grote, fisheries supervisor for the regional office of the Fish and Wildlife Service, said the deteriorating water system at the hatchery is really driving the accelerated planning.

Pat Stoudt told officials that when her father and grandfather helped build the original gravity feed irrigation systems in the Icicle Valley, their focus was on simplicity. She urged the agencies to improve on that, but not to build something grandiose and unnecessary.

She drew applause and shouts of “bravo” when she added, “Folks, let’s not build another bridge to nowhere.”

Michelle McNiel: 664-7152

mcniel@wenatcheeworld.com