Public Comments Invited

December 22, 2023 - The Fisheries and Oceans Canada must decide whether the groundwater supply expansion, located at Rosewall Creek Hatchery, B.C. is likely to cause significant adverse effects. 

To help inform this decision, Fisheries and Oceans Canada is inviting comments from the public on the project and its potential effects on the environment. All comments received will be considered public. For more information, individuals should consult the Privacy Notice on the Registry website.

Written comments must be submitted by January 24, 2024 to:

Philippe Ouellet, PSSI Project Engineer
Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Real Property Technical Services, Pacific Region
Email: Philippe.Ouellet@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
Tel: (343) 575-5985
200 - 401 Burrard Street
Vancouver, B.C.
V6C 3S4

Assessment Summary

As part of the PSSI and associated SEP initiatives, the Rosewall Creek Research Hatchery (Rosewall Hatchery) was selected to receive funding to expand the aquaculture capacity on-site in order to meet specific conservation enhancement targets for salmonid populations.  To facilitate the required program expansion, the water supply and distribution infrastructure at the hatchery is being modernized to ensure adequate rearing capacity and overall system redundancy. Due to aging infrastructure and natural lithological groundwater properties, the flow rates have significantly decreased. The lower flows are hindering daily operations and the resilience of the hatchery.

This project will involve the installation of underground piping from 3 existing groundwater production wells. The production wells will have an associated in ground vault containing all pump infrastructure, and will be connected to an above ground electrical/control kiosk. The control infrastructure will direct and control the flow water through the underground piping to the aeration tower, and subsequently to other rearing and incubation infrastructure.

The construction period will be from October 7, 2024 – March 31 2025, pending any weather delays.

No in-water works are anticipated for this project.

Project Locations

Rosewall Hatchery is a DFO owned and operated asset, located hallway between Bowser and Fanny Bay on the east side of Vancouver Island, approximately 85 km northwest of Nanaimo, BC. The hatchery was built in the 1960's as a research site. The hatchery currently supports an endangered sockeye salmon population. The site is under the jurisdiction of DFO, and as such is on federal land. 

Site Address: Rosewall Creek Salmon Hatchery, 8245 Berray Rd, Fanny Bay BC

Site Access: Public road
Latitude: 49? 27' 44. 08"N 
Longitude: -124?46'35.79"W