Trout Production To Resume At Western Md. Site

CUMBERLAND, Md. (AP) -- The Department of Natural Resources says it's preparing to resume trout production at a western Maryland facility closed seven years ago after fish there were found to be infected with a trout-killing parasite.

The Cumberland Times-News reported in its Sunday edition that Mettiki Coal Corp. is building a "biosecure culture building" at the site near Table Rock that once produced tens of thousands of trout annually for stocking in Maryland waterways.

The state will run the facility.

The Mettiki site was closed in 2007 after trout infected with whirling disease were inadvertently brought there from the state's Bear Creek hatchery. The state destroyed more than 130,000 fish and has been buying trout from private sources ever since.

The agency says the building should be finished this summer.