One day, I hope to see similar words written about the four Klamath Dams. From the News-Tribute, a story about the removal of the Elwha Dams:
On Wednesday, nearly two decades after Congress called for full restoration of the river and its fish runs, federal workers will turn off the generators at the 1913 dam powerhouse and set in motion the largest dam removal project in U.S. history.
Contractors will begin dismantling the dams this fall, a $324.7 million project that will take about three years and eventually will allow the 45-mile Elwha River to run free as it courses from the Olympic Mountains through old-growth forests into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
See you holding a sledgehammer, Tom Chandler.
I was really disappointed when I found out several years ago that dam removal usually involves heavy equipment and tedious de-construction processes. My mental model was Wile-e-Coyote and a bazillion sticks of dynamite. Of course, Wile-e-Coyote would blow the thing up in the same way that Montana’s legislature is a friend of the sportsman. That is to say, not at all. But dynamite should still be a key ingredient. Jackhammers are lame.
Steve Z(Quote)
I was disappointed too; a couple of past-their-expiration-date houseboats, some fertilizer, diesel fuel — and I figure I could save the taxpayers 300+ million on the Elwha thing alone.
Alas — as in so many prior instances — the world doesn’t listen to the Underground, and is the poorer for it.
Tom Chandler(Quote)
We should bid on the next removal project. I think there’s millions to be made here.
Steve Z(Quote)
Clearly. Plus we’d get to wear hard hats and orange safety vests, both of which chicks dig in a big, big way. It’s all upside…
Tom Chandler(Quote)
“Mountain in the Clouds: a search for wild salmon” by Bruce Brown laments the huge race that was lost by the damming of the Elwha.
Here’s hoping that a few stragglers from that gene pool ultimately find their way back up the unfettered river.
Sully(Quote)
Is this book worth searching for on the used market?
Tom Chandler(Quote)
Houseboats and Amfo??? With River guide Seldom Seen Smith and the spirit of Ed Abby at the wheel?? TC,yer MonkeyWrench is showing..hehehehehehe…I just hope they let the Elwha recover on it’s own,NOBODY touch it for 5 years or so….Maybe native runs might start again;but it looks like it’s going to be stocked by zombie fish so the commercial and tribal interests will be happy…..
JP2(Quote)
It’s just possible I read the Monkey Wrench Gang a couple of times.
Too bad about the stocking thing. We got lucky on the Upper Sacramento after the ’91 spill, when plenty of folks wanted them to simply back the hatchery trucks to the river. Cooler heads prevailed and we got our wild trout back, but it was a close thing.
Tom Chandler(Quote)
Hey, neato. I worked on this project several years ago, and it’s quite gratifying to see it coming to a positive conclusion.
I could bore you all with some technical details, but I’m pretty sure I signed an NDA for the Dept of the Interior, so discretion is probably the better part of valor in this case. Suffice to say, the engineers on the job were as disappointed as you all that copious amounts of TNT were not the optimal solution for the demolition work.
MHH(Quote)
What, you can’t even give us a hint? Like “100 feet south of the dam’s center line, about 50′ deep…”
I think the general public could get behind the concept of dam removal a *lot* easier if the projects concluded with something more spectacular than a backhoe digging a little channel.
We don’t need chirping birds and a bunch of guys in suits and hardhats standing around politely clapping. We need Die Hard 6…
Tom Chandler(Quote)
I was not involved with the engineering of the dam removal itself, just the environmental aspects of decommissioning some of the support infrastructure. In fact, I know surprisingly little about the river through that reach, despite having seen quite a lot of data from the site off and on over the course of a couple years.
MHH(Quote)