Dams in the Pacific Northwest stand as magnificent testimony to man’s ability to harness nature for energy, irrigation and flood protection. For more than seven decades, the massive scope of these projects has been astounding. Critics constantly assail the clear and present sacrifices that dams impose on fish habitat, tribal traditions and riparian wonderlands, but the demands of modern society have prevailed.
Although some dams are colossal, another emerging reality in modern society is that even some of the largest dams are not everlasting. About a 90-minute drive up the Columbia River from Vancouver and a few miles up White Salmon River, 125-foot-tall Condit Dam has stood since 1913. But even Condit is on its last days or, more precisely, months or years. Demolition was originally scheduled for 2006, but bureaucratic delays have pushed the project into next year. Ultimately, 32 miles of the White Salmon and its tributaries will be re-opened as the fish habitat that had existed for centuries before the earth movers arrived.
Other dam-removal projects north and south of here are moving more expeditiously. It is encouraging to see that the same level of ingenuity that builds dams also recognizes the shelf life of dams and can determine when to remove them. On Aug. 26 the National Park Service signed a $27 million contract for the first phase of dam-removal work on the Elwha River on the north side of the Olympic Peninsula. Work will begin next year to remove two dams: the 108-foot-high Elwha Dam built five miles from the river’s mouth in 1913 and the 210-foot-high Glines Canyon Dam built 13 miles upstream in 1927. According to The Seattle Times, this is the largest dam-removal project ever in North America.
Before the dams arrived, 100-pound fish roamed the Elwha. After the dams are removed, at an overall cost of $351 million, salmon and steelhead will recolonize about 70 miles of the river and its tributaries.
