PORT ANGELES — How will the removal of Elwha and Glines Canyon dams benefit those living on the North Olympic Peninsula economically?
Incrementally — but eventually substantially — according to a 2005 supplement to the National Park Service’s final environmental impact statement on the largest dam-removal project of its kind in the nation’s history, a $325 million effort to restore the Elwha River and revive its moribund salmon run.
The removal of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams will add at least $355 million to the Peninsula’s economy over the next 100 years, money that would not be generated if the dams remained, said the report, the most recent update on economic expectations.
Also count on an annual increase of 507,084 trips by tourists and hikers.
Fish stocks are expected to be restored within the next 20 to 30 years.
Recreation, tourism
“Recreation and tourism expenditures would increase slowly from 1993 levels of $117 million,” the report said.
The total includes $317.6 million in recreation and tourism, $36.7 million in commercial tribal and non-tribal fishing, $10.3 million in sport fishing.
“These benefits would be readily noticeable to the local economy, would be long term and would be moderate-to-major in intensity,” the report said.
Benefits also include an estimated $1 million in savings for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which will not have to replenish the seaward shoreline of much-visited Ediz Hook in Port Angeles, according to the report.
The Hook is expected to benefit from the flow of 24.5 million cubic yards of sediment behind the Glines Canyon and Elwha dams, much of which will be freed as the dams are removed by September 2014.
Some of that sediment eventually will settle on the Hook.
Get out the word
Diane Shostak, executive director of the Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau, said last week it’s up to business, community and political leaders to ramp up getting out the word to the public on the benefits of dam removal.
“It’s up to us as promoters to keep it in front of the public,” she said.
“It will be a big job to keep talking about the Elwha and keep promoting the Elwha.”
She added: “This is progress.
“It’s the biggest ecological recovery process on the West Coast.”
The project so far has employed at least 10 Lower Elwha Klallam tribal members, said Rolf Elofson, the tribe’s Elwha River restoration project director.
“I expect the whole local economy to improve as the salmon runs come back, and the recreational opportunities on the river will be wide open without the dams in the way,” said Elofson, also the tribe’s natural resources director.
“We are talking about a major salmon stream five miles from downtown Port Angeles,” he added.
“There’s no way I could express how happy I am to see the actual dismantling of the dams start.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
