Demolition of the Elwha Dam started on Thursday. It will restore the river to to a pristine condition since most of the river and its 270 square mile watershed is PRISTINE WILDERNESS since it lies within Olympic National Park. This is the biggest dam removal project in the world.
Celebration for WA Elwha River dam removal project
The $325 million project is expected to last three years and eventually restore the Olympic Peninsula river to its wild state and restore salmon runs.
Before two towering concrete dams were built nearly a century ago, the river teemed with salmon but the structures blocked the fishes' access to upstream habitat, diminished their runs and altered the ecosystem.
An excavator began chipping away at the top of Glines Canyon Dam on Thursday.
Guests expected at Saturday's ceremony at the downstream Elwha Dam include Gov. Chris Gregoire, Senators Patty Murray and MCelebration for WA Elwha River dam removal projectaria Cantwell, Congressman Norm Dicks and officials of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, which historically relied on the salmon runs.
The constructions of the Elwha river dams devastated the salmon runs of fish so big they became legendary with many of the kings weighing 100 lbs or more. The construction of the two dams dams also was a devastating blow to the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe who's villages near the mouth of the river had depended of the abundant salmon runs for countless generations. Tribal elders told of fish so big and so numerous that they could walk on them as the spawning fish swam up the river.
The first dam was built with no fish ladders cutting off the upper 40 miles of the river from migrating salmon, leaving only the lower 4.9 miles of the channel open to spawning salmon. In 1912 while the first of the dams was under construction the dam blew out flooding the Elwha Klallam villages down stream compounding the disastrous effect the dams had on the tribe. When the Elwha Dam was finished in 1913 the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe gatherd and watched in stunned horror as hundreds of thousands of salmon died at the base of this dam.
Elwha Dam the smaller of the two
Update: I just got to watch a peace of heavy equipment rip into the dam below on the late local news. VERY satisfying to watch.
If our Oceans are still healthy enough the runs of enormous King Salmon may be able to rebuild and return to their former abundance thanks to the river's pristine watershed protected inside the Olympic National Perk.
History of Elwha and Glines Canyon Dams
Historically, the salmon habitat included 70 miles of the river and its tributaries. It is estimated that the number of native salmon has dropped from pre-dam numbers of 380,000 to fewer than 3,000 in the 1990s (NPS 1996).
The declining salmon population has had a ripple effect on the watershed. Historically, salmon were an important source of food for wildlife (such as black bear) along much of the Elwha River. Today, wildlife above the Elwha Dam must rely on other sources of food or travel further down river to get salmon. Furthermore, watershed ecosystems that used to benefit from marine-derived nutrients from salmon carcasses no longer have access to those nutrients.
Additionally, the dams flooded a large area of land (which was traditionally covered with native plants and home to many species of wildlife)to create the reservoirs. Currently, the dams' reservoirs cover approximately 684 acres of riparian and wetland habitat. Construction of the dams also left sacred and historical tribal sites underwater--such as the creation site of the Klallam people, which was flooded by the construction of the Elwha Dam (Wray 1997).
The return of the Elwha River finally begins
"Removal of the two fish-blocking dams from the Elwha River is probably the most significant restoration action in the history of the Pacific Northwest."
So declared Jacques White, executive director of Long Live the Kings, Michael Schmidt, director of Fish Programs for Long Live the Kings, and Lars Mobrand, outgoing chair, Hatchery Scientific Review Group, in a recent Seattle Times op-ed piece.
The Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act dates to 1992 and set in motion a long series of events that led to unplugging the electrical grid that powered mills, to construction of replacement water systems, flood-protection levies on the Lower Elwha Tribes reservation, and a string of predictions when dam removal might begin and be complete.
Work started Thursday on the 210-high Glines Canyon Dam, ahead of the festivities at the 105-foot high Elwha Dam. Demolition and restoration work is expected to take three years.
We locals have been talking about taking down these destructive dams for decades. Removing the dams was opposed by the GHW Bush Administration due to the Republican bias against nature. But the Congress, led by Democrats in the Washington delegation passed the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act in 1992. So don't ever tell me that voting can't restore a beautiful river, or for that matter preserve the larger environment.
Also see Ojibwa's: Dam Indians: The Elwha River