Benner Spring Discharge Channel

[albud1962]

I was at Spring Creek yesterday and the discharge channel had a strange appearance from the Benner Spring Hatchery. I am not sure what it could be but it was like a brown looking algae. A lot of the vegetation appeared to be dying too. Any ideas on what this is? The weed bed at the mouth of Spring Creek is now gone.

 

[Fishidiot]

It's probably not cause for concern - perhaps they were cleaning the raceways and/or the weeds and algae have died back naturally due to seasonal fluctuation(?).

However, you may want to wait for Troutbert, Nymphingmaniac or some of the guys who keep a close tab on what's happening on the streams around there to chime in as they would know better than I what is normal and what isn't.
In the meantime, you might give the hatchery a polite courtesy call and carefully describe what you saw and when you saw it.

 

[osprey]

DejaVu........the hatchery , state owned , at the headwaters of Big Spring Creek , eventually closed , due to the discharge into Heritage classified regulations.

 

[pcray1231]

I haven't been there recently, so it could be different than what I remember. But I seem to remember pretty much the same thing every winter.

The hatchery discharge is fairly slow, and rich with nitrates from the hatchery. As a result, algae tends to grow well and cover everything. It tends to die back in the winter. Not sure if it truly dies or just goes "dormant", but it turns brown. The same generally happens to algae in the stream itself, though there's less of it in the stream than in that channel.

 

[troutbert]

You might be seeing winter dieback of the vegetation. The vegetation may also be changing in the channel because of changes in the effluent.

That fairly new structure you see near the discharge channel contains microfilters, which provide an additional treatment to the discharge.

I think the discharge water looks and smells much cleaner than before. Cleaner means less nutrients, which might alter the vegetation in the channel.