Summerville Fish Hatchery Floods, Some Trout Escape

Here’s before and after photos of the Summerville Fish Hatchery in Chattooga County that barely escaped disaster on Labor Day Weekend when it was hit with monsoon-like rains.

The Summerville Fish Hatchery in Chattooga County barely escaped disaster on Labor Day Weekend when it was hit with monsoon-like rains.

The hatchery was hit with 14 inches of rain in less than eight hours, which caused its trout raceways and production ponds to overflow. That flooding allowed some trout to escape into the floodwaters. Quick action by hatchery personnel saved the entire facility from major damage.

“The hatchery manager was on site the whole time,” said Chris Harper, the assistant chief of WRD’s Fisheries Management section. “The guys worked really hard. The raceways and production ponds were submerged and looked like one big lake. Personnel were netting fish in puddles and asphalt roadways.

“Others were getting our stocking trucks and anything low in the warehouse to higher ground. Nothing was damaged. The office was not affected.”

Of the 72,000 trout being raised there, approximately 55,000 survived. That was not as bad as it might seem, Harper said. It will not affect future stocking.

‘The majority of the fish that did escape were small fish that were to be stocked in 2023,” he said. “We’re working on a plan to replace those fish right now. It will not affect stocking in 2023.”