Revival of Washington's Elwha River
PORT ANGELES, Wash. — High hopes ride on knocking down two aging hydroelectric dams along the blue-green waters of the Elwha River: robust salmon runs, replenished beaches, restored wildlife habitat, a tourism windfall, access to sacred Indian sites long submerged.
But the dams' demise — one would be the tallest ever demolished in the USA — may play a larger role. Hundreds of dams built in the past century are near the end of their usefulness and pose dilemmas for policymakers: remove them or make costly upgrades to keep them functioning.
The Elwha River project, which won state approval in March, could be a model for how to bring a river back to life, environmentalists and biologists say. Hundreds of small dams have been torn out around the country in recent years, but none as high as the 210-foot-high Glines Canyon, the taller of the two on the Elwha.
"On this scale, in this type of river, it's a first, says Mike McHenry, fish habitat manager for the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, whose reservation straddles the river. "We're entering an era where a lot of dams will probably be removed. So we think it's important to document what happens."
The Elwha dams, built in the early 1900s, were to come down in 2009, until the National Park Service announced a delay last week until 2012 because related water projects will take longer than expected to finish. Four other dams in the Northwest will be cleared away over the next three years.
In Southern California, destruction of the 200-foot-tall Matilija Dam is to begin in 2013.
In Northern California and Oregon, efforts to get rid of four hydrodams on the Klamath River got a boost when a federal appeals court in March upheld a key ruling against farmers who draw water from the river. Wednesday, Indians and fishermen seeking to demolish the dams sued the owner, PacifiCorp.
A study by the California Energy Commission concluded that tearing down the Klamath dams and buying electricity at market rates to replace the hydroproduction would be cheaper than upgrades needed to win new operating licenses. The downside is that market-rate power from power plants wouldn't be as "clean" as the hydrogeneration.
Continue reading this article from USA Today:
Washington will destroy dams to revive a river
