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~ t'- -~- - ~ -- The Denver Post Thursday, Mar. 24, 1983 .------.,.. ( ('E~ ... Watt Gets More Pressure On Jones Hole Hatchery ~ By BOB SAlLE Denver Post Outdoor Editor Concerned Rocky Mountain-area wildlife officiats and sportsmen are continuing to !lressure Interior Secretary James Watt to iake the Jones Hole F'ish Hatchery in utah off the administration's "hit list" of federal hatcheries to be closed down this year. The latest development was the filing of an injunction suit against Watt by the state of New Mexico. The suit asks that Watt be barred from closing the hatchery, which would reduce New Mexico's allotment of federally produced fish by two-thirds. In filing the suit in federal district court in Sllnta Fe, New Mexico attorney general .rauI Bardacke charged that closing the hatcllery - or transferring ownership of it - WCluId violate the Colorado River Storage Act of 1956, the Fish and Wildlife Coordina- tlIm Act of 1934 and the National Environ- menW Policy Act of 1969. The suit notes that existing federallegisla- tion requires the federal government to as- sist in maintaining wildlife resources and habitat in federally constructed reservoirs. Closing Jones Hole, which produces trout for stocking in federal-project waters in Colo- rado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming, would violate that legislation, the suit charges. Colorado officials, including Gov. Dick Lamm, have protested the impending clo- sure of the hatchery, one of 45 federal hatcheries slated to be shut down or trans- ferred to other ownership in the next two years. Lamm expressed his displeasure to Watt in a letter dated F'eb. 9. "It is difficult for me to believe Congress . fully understood the interstate importance of this hatchery or funding would have been as- sured," wrote Lamm. Colorado officials estimated that closure of Jones H ole would mean a loss of some 500,000 to 800,000 rainbow trout annually which would otherwise be stocked in Colo- rado reservoirs. Closure would force the fed- eral hatchery at Hotchkiss, to be stretched too thin to meet all stocking needs. Watt has extended the impending closure of Jones Hole from March 31 to June 1. In the meantime, Utah authorities have said they are prepared to assume operation of the hatchery, if necessary. But in that event, ' they said, other states such as Colorado would have to pay for any fish they got from Jones Hole. The "hit list" of hatcheries was drawn up by the Interior Department as a move to shut down supposedly inefficient hatcheries an<\ tra~er responsibility for stocking state waters to the states. J oneil Hele wa.' " the original hit list, but ended up , ing Congressional maneuverir