Elwha River dam removal talk set Tuesday

Published 12:01 am Monday, March 12, 2012

OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — The Olympic National Park Perspectives Winter Speakers Series continues this week with a program on the Elwha River dam removal project.

“Coastal Response to Elwha Dam Removal: Present and Future” will be presented by John A. Warwick of the U.S. Geological Survey at the Olympic National Park Visitor Center, 3002 Mount Angeles Road, Port Angeles, from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The program is free.

Two dams on the Elwha River disrupted the flow of sediment to the Strait of Juan de Fuca for nearly 100 years, eroding the Elwha River delta and degrading shellfish habitat.

Researchers are tracking how the ecosystem will respond to restoration of this sediment after dam removal.

In mid-September, Barnard Construction crews began the three-year process of removing the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams.

Three excavators working in tandem are nearly done removing the last remnants of the Elwha Dam in the river’s original channel, as well as the hundreds of tons of dirt, logs and concrete dumped into the narrow V-shaped canyon in 1912 to plug a blowout that occurred during construction.

The Elwha Dam is nearly completely removed, and the contractor plans to return the river into its original channel this week.

When that happens, salmon will be able to swim past the once 108-foot dam for the first time since it was built without fish ladders in 1913.

The fish will be able to reach as far up the river as the Glines Canyon Dam, about 8.5 miles from the Strait of Juan de Fuca, as well as up many of the river’s tributaries, including Indian Creek, which leads to Lake Sutherland.

Demolition will continue on Glines Canyon Dam’s man-made channel to the west until the structure is fully removed in about a year.

Once complete, the project will open 70 miles of river habitat to all five Pacific salmon species and steelhead.

The dam removal project is costing roughly $26.9 million, while the bill for the entire project is estimated at $325 million.

The speaker series takes place the second Tuesday of each month through April.

It is sponsored by Olympic National Park and the Friends of Olympic National Park. For information, phone Dean Butterworth at 360-565-3146 or email dean_butterworth@nps.gov.