PORT ANGELES — The Elwha River dam removal project’s primary purpose ¬– to restore salmon habitat on the North Olympic Peninsula’s largest watershed — suffered some collateral damage earlier this month.
It occurred after the removal of a temporary coffer dam near the new industrial water treatment plant by Watts-DelHur AJV damaged a significant number of chinook salmon redds — nests of salmon eggs — in a portion of the lower Elwha River near the one-way bridge.
Lower Elwha Klallam tribe habitat biologist Mike McHenry detailed the damage in an e-mail obtained by the Peninsula Daily News
that was sent to several Olympic National Park and tribal biologists as well as members of the Peninsula’s salmon conservation community.
McHenry estimated that the action affected 15 percent of the redds in the river for the 2008 chinook salmon run, with the actual number of salmon nests damaged falling anywhere between 29 and 45 redds.
He also wrote that the damage “was avoidable [and] should not have happened.”
Both McHenry and Lower Elwha Klallam fisheries manager Doug Morrill declined to comment when contacted by phone.
“We’ve talked with our lawyers, and we probably shouldn’t be giving any opinions at this point,” Morrill said.
A joint venture of DelHur Industries of Port Angeles and Watts Constructors LLC was awarded the $69.6 million construction contract for the industrial water treatment plant by the National Park Service last year.
Walt Schwartz, the vice president of northwest operations for Watts Constructors, said the park service has asked his company to direct all questions to it.
“I have my opinions about what happened and know we were darned careful about what we did out there,” Schwartz said.
“We had three seasons to do the work in the river, and we got it all done in one.
“So concerning any damages that may have been done, I think we did a lot less than we could have.”
A representative for DelHur Industries could not be reached by phone on Thursday.
Olympic National Park’s Elwha project manager Brian Winter said the park service will conduct an inquiry during the next few days.
“I personally don’t have all the facts yet,” Winter said.
“One of the things we’re doing is the project manager [for the industrial water treatment plant contract] is coming out, so we’re interviewing various people so we can get an idea of what redds were affected and why.”
Removal of two dams
The 1992 Elwha River Restoration Act authorized removal of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams, now slated to begin in 2012 with a price tag of at least $315 million.
In order for the dams to be removed, new industrial and municipal water treatment plants needed to be constructed to protect the water supplies of the city of Port Angeles, the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe and its fish hatchery as well as the state fish rearing channel.
As part of the construction of the new water intake facilities for the industrial water treatment plant, a portion of the Elwha above the one-way bridge was diverted by a temporary coffer dam to a bypass channel from June to October.
Chinook salmon, also known as king salmon, came in and spawned upstream of the dam during that time.
And since chinook tend to enter the Elwha to spawn in September, there were several fresh redds in the river when the dam was removed earlier this month.
After the dam was taken out, spawning beds adjacent to the work zone were buried by sediment and other material from the dam. Additionally, heavy equipment also traveled over the redds.
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Sports and outdoors writer Matt Schubert can be reached at 360-417-3526 or at matt.schubert@peninsuladailynews.com.
