Pond liner renovations underway at Possum Kingdom State Fish Hatchery
Story by Bob Kaspar | Photo by Matthew Renfro
A multimillion-dollar maintenance project at Possum Kingdom State Fish Hatchery aims to keep the facility in the business of stocking millions of fish into lakes, ponds and rivers across Texas for years to come.
The hatchery, nestled into the hills on the banks of the Brazos River just downstream of Morris Shepherd Dam, has been renovated and repaired numerous times in its seven decades of existence, and the $3 million maintenance project, with its 300-day timeline for completion, will replace 27 acres of outdated rubber pond liner with a plastic material that is more durable and has a longer lifespan. The current liners are made from a rubber material that can last for a maximum of 20 years.
“These pond liners were installed in 2001 and are well past their lifespan,” said Ryan Rogers, the hatchery’s manager.
The new liners also will be much less slippery, which will make it easier for hatchery staff to work on, he said.
One downside of the new material, though, is that it will be harder to repair. Tears in the old liner could be patched with rubber tape and a specialized glue, but any repairs to the new liner will require the use of a plastic welder.
The maintenance project also aims to repair the concrete “kettles,” or large concrete basins that contain a drain system, that were built in the 1940s and have started to deteriorate. They serve an important role during fish harvest operations, when hatchery staff members slowly drain water from the pond until the fish are concentrated within the kettles, where they can be collected with nets and loaded onto a truck.
About a quarter of the hatchery’s ponds will remain in use during the maintenance project. Once the other ponds have been re-lined, fish can be moved from those ponds so they can be re-lined as well. The hatchery still plans to conduct its summer catfish stockings, and its winter rainbow trout stocking program will be unaffected.
Rogers said he is optimistic that the project be completed by the October deadline.
“If all goes to plan, we should be fully operational by this fall,” he said.
