National Park Service director praises tribe for dam removal support
Lower Elwha Klallam tribal Chairwoman Francis Charles speaks with, from left, Lower Elwha fish hatchery project manager Frank Baublits, National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis and Interior Deputy Assistant Secretary Will Shafroth during a tour of the hatchery construction site on tribal land west of Port Angeles on Friday. -- Photo by Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News
Lower Elwha Klallam tribe asks about acquiring Lake Aldwell bottom after restoration
PORT ANGELES -- The Klallam people may once again call the land flooded by Lake Aldwell nearly a century ago their own.There has been no decision as what to do with the roughly 240 acres covered by Lake Aldwell once the dam is removed and lake drained, National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis said Friday.
But Lower Elwha Klallam Tribal Chairwoman Frances Charles said the tribe has approached the Park Service about acquiring the land for conservation and to protect Native American cultural sites.
"We have sacred ground areas there" used for "spiritual quests," she said.
There are also known to be former campsites flooded by the lake and possibly village sites as well, Charles said.
Additionally, there are stories that refer to the area as the birthplace of the Klallam people and other tribes, she said.
Charles said the tribe could use some of the land for cultural-related tourism.
"We are going to look into it," she said, referring to property acquisition.
Jarvis said the Park Service will retain ownership of the reservoir area until the land is "restored."
"Then we will make a determination in its future use," he said.
"Basically we are going to retain the land at least for the time being."
Charles said the tribe could seek assistance from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, paid for by offshore oil drilling, if it moves to acquire the land.
Will Schafroth, Interior Department deputy assistant secretary, told the tribe Friday that President Barack Obama wants Congress to restore the conservation fund to $900 million -- the most authorized --by 2014.
The federal government took over ownership of the Elwha Dam -- built in 1913 for hydroelectric power -- Lake Aldwell and the upstream Glines Canyon Dam 10 years ago from Daishowa America, which then owned the paper mill at the base of Ediz Hook.
Daishowa was acquired by Nippon Paper of Japan in 2001. Nippon Paper Industries USA now operates the mill.
The federal acquisition was in preparation of removing the two dams on the Elwha River
Dam removal will begin in the summer or fall of 2011 and take up to three years to complete.
Olympic National Park personnel are calling this the "Last Dam Summer" in anticipation of next year's start.
Tom Callis, Peninsula Daily News
By Tom Callis
Peninsula Daily News
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"Without the tribe's support . . . this would not have happened," Park Service Director Jon Jarvis during the informal meeting on the Lower Elwha Klallam reservation just west of Port Angeles.
The tribe has been one of the strongest supporters of the 1992 Elwha River Restoration Act, which requires removal of the watercourse's two dams to restore historic salmon runs.
After nearly two decades of planning, dismantling of the dams under the aegis of the Park Service, is slated to begin next year.
"It's almost hard to believe that we are here," said Jarvis, formerly the Park Service's Pacific West Region director before being appointed by President Barack Obama as director of the nation's national park system last fall.
Lower Elwha Chairwoman Frances Charles gave Jarvis a Native painting that she said represents the cooperation between the tribe and federal government on the $350 million project. She also gave Interior Department Deputy Assistant Secretary Will Schafroth, who was present, a wood carving of a salmon.
"The elders are smiling down on us today," she said, before wiping a few emerging tears from her eyes.
After the meeting, Jarvis took a tour of the construction site of a new tribal fish hatchery being built as part of the dam-removal project.
He visited the tribe and Olympic National Park staff after attending a "listening session" in Seattle as part of Obama's "America's Great Outdoors" initiative.
It was a homecoming of sorts for Jarvis, who is a former Mount Rainier National Park superintendent.
While speaking with the Peninsula Daily News, Jarvis said the public is getting "well more than their money's worth" with the project, even though its price tag has ballooned from its original estimate of $119 million.
The Olympic Peninsula and Puget Sound area will benefit, he said, from the restoration of the Elwha River fisheries.
Legend has it that the Elwha River once produced salmon before the lower dam was built for hydroelectric power in 1913.
Glines Canyon Dam, located upstream in what is now Olympic National Park, was built in 1927.
The dams will continue to produce up to 25.1 megawatts of electricity until Feb. 3.
"The salmon draw tourism, it draws fishermen, just all kinds of multiple benefits," Jarvis said.
"On top of that . . . the other piece, in terms of public benefit, is showing how to put a system back together that had been significantly altered."
The river's salmon population is projected to increase from about 3,000 a year to 400,000 annually about three decades after the dams are removed.
Barb Maynes, the Olympic National Park's spokeswoman and local media contact for the project, attributed the cost increase to additional project requirements as well as inflation and higher costs for some building materials.
After the first cost estimate was made in 1999, a fish rearing facility had to be added to the project, she said during an April interview.
Maynes said design changes were subsequently required to the industrial water treatment plant to remove the sediment -- expected to be released when the dams are removed -- from Nippon Paper Industries USA's water supply to the company's Port Angeles paper mill.
Jarvis also said the Lower Elwha Klallam reservation, located on a floodplain, will be protected from any additional threat of flooding after the dams are fully removed in about four years.
"We have a deep understanding of the [river's] hydrology," he said.
"We have a very good idea what's going to happen with floods."
A levee will be raised and lengthened to protect from flooding, he said.
Another levee across the river from the reservation has already been strengthened.
The reservoirs behind the dams will be drained slowly to avoid any floods during demolition, Maynes said.
Work to improve the tribe's levee is expected to begin within the next week or two.
"That will protect the tribe from any flooding," Jarvis said.
Charles said she is "comfortable" with the plan but added that "time will tell."
"Once the river runs free, we will have to see what goes on," she said.
In another matter, Jarvis also commented on the emerging Port Angeles effort to raise $75,000 to keep Hurricane Ridge Road open to the Olympic National Park snowplay area weekdays during the winter.
The Park Service is willing to put up $250,000 as part of a two- or three-year trial period.
"It's a great partnership and a great opportunity to work together to achieve this for the community," Jarvis said.
He said the Park Service cannot budget all of the money because of the "many, many needs in the National Park System."
He said it hasn't been determined that if the road is opened during the winter on a permanent basis whether the Park Service would cover all of the cost.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: July 04. 2010 1:07AM
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