LEAVENWORTH — No one disagrees that the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery needs a new water system or that Icicle Creek should run more freely.

What they don’t agree on is how to do it.

Federal and state agencies, Icicle Valley residents and environmentalists have bantered back and forth for more than a decade on plans to replace the 70-year-old hatchery’s deteriorating water system and restore a section of the creek that was blocked off during construction of the complex in the late 1930s.

Several ideas have been put forth over the years. All have been rejected by one side or the other.

Now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which operates the hatchery, and Bureau of Reclamation, which funds the operation, are closing in on a new plan. They’ve got federal stimulus money to pay for part of it, and have secured federal appropriation for some of the rest. They hope to break ground as early as the fall 2010 — a requirement for federal stimulus funding.

Early estimates put the project cost at about $60 million.

The latest proposal is complex. It involves moving the current diversion of water from Icicle Creek for the hatchery from its current location about a mile and a half upstream from the hatchery to a new location downstream about a half mile from the hatchery. A large pumping station would replace the current gravity system that sends water downhill through a mile and a half of pipes to the hatchery.

To make sure the pumping station has enough water at all times, a new 2-foot-high weir, or dam-like structure, would be built across the creek.

The plan also calls for tearing out and replacing an old dam that now blocks water from flowing freely into a creek channel that was cut off when the hatchery was built. That creek channel was once used by the hatchery to raise fish, but hasn’t been used since the 1970s. Old fish pens and other structures in the channel were removed in 2003, and water has been allowed to flow intermittently into the channel for the last few years in an effort to return it to a functioning creek channel.

The new dam would control the flow of water into the closed channel and would include two fish bypass options — a ladder and a separate channel that will allow fish passage during times of low and high water flow.

The entire proposal is drawing sharp opposition from area environmentalists, including Harriett Bullitt, who owns property neighboring the hatchery. The Cascade Orchard Irrigation Co., which shares operation of the current water diversion system with the hatchery, also opposes the plan to move the diversion downstream.

The pumping station would have an “astronomical increase in costs” for the irrigation company, said board member Mona Blount of Leavenworth.

“In these unprecedented economic times, we need to practice fiscal responsibility and not spend our tax dollars as if it were Monopoly money,” she added.

Bullitt said the federal government’s plan would essentially dam up the entire Icicle and control its flow through the use of dams, which is counter to efforts in recent years to return the creek more to its natural state. She said the new dam near the pumping station would create an artificial lake in the creek.

“I want a healthy flowing river,” she said in an interview this week. “They want to foreclose the river forever.”

The opponents believe the hatchery should go back to its original plan to renovate the existing gravity water system where it is currently located, rather than moving it and switching to a pump system. That plan is considerably cheaper and would have less impact on the surrounding property owners, the irrigators and the environment, they say.

State Ecology Director Jay Manning jumped into the fray this week, visiting the hatchery to learn more about the proposal and see for himself what changes would be made. Ecology must issue water-quality permits before the project can move forward.

The proposal also still needs approval and permits from several other federal and state agencies.

Hatchery Manager Julie Collins said there is no question that the hatchery’s water system is headed for failure. The mortar-lined pipe that carries water to the hatchery has been dropping pieces of mortar into the water, and the intake must be monitored 24 hours a day during the winter to keep it from icing up. Water flow and temperature are unpredictable.

But federal regulatory agencies in 2007 rejected the original proposal to rebuild the existing system, saying it was harmful for fish and the creek, she said.

So a multi-agency team of experts was appointed to began working together on a new plan. Their latest proposal was released in August.

Opponents believe the agencies have been “secretive” about what they are planning for the hatchery, Bullitt said. They also believe the project is being fast-tracked because of the stimulus funding. The project has been awarded a $19 million stimulus grant.

But Bob Hamilton, technical team leader on the project for the Bureau of Reclamation, said the design phases of government projects are routinely done outside the public eye. He said the final draft for the project will be made public sometime in November and public meetings will be held in the Leavenworth area.

As for the fast-tracking concerns, Hamilton said, “This planning process has been going on for years. Have we sped things up to take advantage of stimulus? I would say yes. You don’t get too many oportunities to get the kinds of money the stimulus is providing.”

Collins said the hatchery has a number of goals and mandates it is trying to comply with at the same time, not the least of which is its founding requirement to produce salmon as mitigation for construction of Grand Coulee Dam. It is also trying to meet Endangered Species Act requirements for fish and fish habitat, produce fish for a federally mandated tribal fishery program, allow the Yakama Nation to raise coho for a reintroduction program, provide some fish passage upstream from the hatchery, and now upgrade its old facilities.

“This (remodel) is a need, a really big need,” she said.

But opponents say it needs to be done with consideration to Icicle Valley residents and the creek itself.

Dan Evans, a Seattle area lawyer and environmental law expert who is consulting for the irrigation district, said the federal agencies “are sensitive to political interests.”

He added that local opposition “could be a show stopper for this project.”

Michelle McNiel: 664-7152

mcniel@wenatcheeworld.com