PORT ANGELES — With the start of removal of the two Elwha River dams a year away, about 125 people celebrated the completion of one of the last major milestones leading up to the $308 million federal project.
Construction workers, project managers, local government and tribal leaders, and other dignitaries attended the dedication ceremony of the two treatment plants.
They will keep the water supply for Port Angeles and Lower Elwha Klallam tribe free of the 18-million cubic yards of sediment that has collected behind the Glides Canyon and Elwha dams for nearly a century — and which will be released when the dams are removed beginning in spring 2011.
“We’re closer to seeing sights of 100-pound salmon swimming against the current up a free-flowing Elwha River,” said Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, during Friday’s ceremony at the plant that will treat Port Angeles’ drinking water, located next to the waste transfer station at the west end of 18th Street.
The other treatment plant, on the river near the Elwha River Road bridge, will remove the excess sediment from the water destined for the tribe’s new fish hatchery, which is under construction, and the city’s industrial water line.
Removal of the dams, built in 1913 and 1927, is intended to restore the Elwha River ecosystem, particularly for salmon.
The endeavor is the largest dam removal project so far in the nation.
Tribe awaits salmon
Restoration of the river’s salmon runs — which once were legendary — is something that the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe has yearned for since the structures went up, said Russell Hepfer, tribal vice chairman.
“They are gone, but hopefully they will come back,” he said.
Demolition is expected to take from two to three years to complete.
The National Park Service, which is heading the project, will begin accepting contract proposals for demolition next Friday.
The contract will be awarded in August.
Before dam removal begins, two new levees on the tribe’s reservation must be built, its new fish hatchery must be operating, and improvements to the water intake at Nippon Paper Industries’ Port Angeles mill must have been completed.
A fish rearing facility on Morse Creek — built to preserve Elwha River salmon genealogy in case the remaining population doesn’t survive dam removal — and a greenhouse near Sequim to grow plants for river bank rehabilitation have been constructed.
Construction of the two treatment plants began in 2007 and 2008, and cost a combined total of $106.6 million.
The municipal plant has been running since Feb. 11.
The other plant, known as the Elwha Water Facility, was labeled “substantially completed” Friday.
It will begin operating when dam removal starts.
The $79 million industrial water treatment plant will operate for three to five years until the sediment trapped behind the dams washes downstream, said Olympic National Park spokeswoman Barb Maynes.
Its future use remains undetermined, but Port Angeles Public Works and Utilities Director Glenn Cutler said the city has interest in gaining ownership.
He said the city could use it in case there is a “catastrophic event,” like a large landslide upstream.
The city gets its drinking water from a well, charged by river water, but that may become clogged as fine particles of sediment make their way into the ground water after the dams come down, Cutler said.
He has said the city can’t take the chance of not having a drinking water supply, which is why the treatment plant on 18th Street is needed.
During dam removal, the drinking water will be taken directly from the river and treated at the facility.
The city already treats its drinking water at the well.
But the treatment plant will be able to remove the additional sediment and meet new, more stringent state health guidelines for water bound for people’s faucets.
The cost of running the drinking water treatment plant this year was estimated at $674,000.
The city will pay about $156,000, with the difference made up by the National Park Service.
The city’s share of the cost is what it would pay to come into compliance with the state Department of Health’s new guidelines for disinfecting drinking water if the treatment plant wasn’t built, Cutler has said.
The city will take on the full operating costs after 27 years.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.