Dam Removal

This week the River Restoration Office at the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe sent around a link to an Oregon Public Broadcasting video clip about the removal of the Marmot Dam on the Sandy River, a tributary of the lower Columbia. (location map). Zowie. The removal of sediment didn't happen exactly as they expected, and salmon began reclaiming the river right away.

When it happens here, it will be on a very different scale. Marmot was 50 feet high, and its lake contained 900,000 cubic yards of sediment. The dams on the Elwha , scheduled for removal in 2012 (location map) are much bigger. Elwha Dam is 108 feet high and walls up 5 million cubic yards of sediment; and Glines Canyon Dam is 210 feet high and walls up 13 million cubic yards of sediment.

When W.C. was here last week we went out to look at the two dams, and try to imagine the river's future. He took the pictures. (Lots of links about the Elwha.)

This one is leaving...
and so is this one.