Congressman says stimulus funds to speed removal of Elwha dams

WASHINGTON – A spending plan released by federal officials Wednesday will speed removal of two dams on the Elwha River on Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula, a local congressman says.

A total of $58 million in economic stimulus funding is headed to the Olympic National Park, most of it for work to accelerate the Elwha River ecosystem and fisheries improvement program. The park also will receive money to restore roads and renovate trails and campgrounds.

Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., said the money should allow work on dam removal to be completed at least a year ahead of schedule and perhaps by 2011. Stimulus money will be used for preparation work on the Elwha project, including removal of culverts, reinforcement of flood protection, water quality enhancements and replacement of a tribal fish hatchery, Dicks said.

Accelerating the project “brings us much closer to the actual dam removal, which will soon result in significant ecological, cultural and economic benefits to the Olympic Peninsula,” Dicks said.

The Elwha is the largest watershed on the Olympic Peninsula and was once one of the most productive salmon streams in the Pacific Northwest, home to all five species of Pacific salmon, as well as other fish species. Two dams, constructed in the first half of the 1900s, now block fish from all but the lower five miles of the river.

Congress authorized removal of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams in 1992 and has allocated $223 million for the project so far, said Dicks’ chief of staff, George Behan. The stimulus funding brings that figure to almost $278 million. Total cost for the project is estimated at about $308 million.

Once completed, the dam removal project – one of the largest in U.S. history – will restore the Elwha to its natural, free-flowing condition and allow fish access to more than 70 river miles of habitat now protected within Olympic National Park.