Going With The Flow Plan To Dismantle Two Outdated Dams Will Allow Salmon To Swim Free Again In The Elwha River

The end appears near for Washington’s Elwha Dam and the upstream battle to revive 10 runs of steelhead and salmon, including kings that once exceeded 100 pounds.

President Bill Clinton has budgeted $86 million to begin restoring the Elwha River to its natural state.

The stream runs nearly 50 miles from the heart of Olympic National Park to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

The proposal includes $29 million for the federal government to buy the Elwha Dam, as well as a second dam upstream at Glines Canyon.

The rest of the money would be needed to remove Elwha Dam and rehabilitate the river upstream and down from the dam site at river mile 5.

The Clinton administration has said it will seek an additional $16 million next year for removal of Glines Canyon Dam at river mile 13.

Congress is likely to approve the $86 million request this spring, with the qualified support of Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., chairman of the Senate interior appropriations committee.

Gorton has been criticized by the Washington Farm Bureau and other agriculture groups. They contend his flip-flop last year to support removal of the Elwha will encourage environmentalists to target other dams.

In particular, they are concerned about the clamor to dismantle or bypass some Snake River dams in order to improve passage for endangered salmon and steelhead.

Agriculture interests say they cannot afford to lose the capacity for the Snake to provide irrigation and barge transportation for their crops.

In an effort to show he’s no push-over for environmental causes, Gorton has set conditions for his support to remove the Elwha Dam.

First, he wants Congress to pledge not to remove Snake River dams.

Then, once the Elwha Dam is removed, he wants the federal government to study the river at least 12 years before deciding whether to remove the second dam at Glines Canyon, which is within Olympic National Park.

Support for waiting that long is crumbling as surely as the Elwha Dam itself.

Indeed, political interests pale against the benefits of returning the river to the fish.

“Sen. Gorton was swayed by the local citizens advisory group, which found that removing the dams was the best option for the Port Angeles community,” said Brian Winter, Olympic National Parks dam removal project director.

The two dams were built in the early 1900s to power mills in Port Angeles. Nowadays, cheaper and more reliable sources of power are available for the local pulp and paper mills, which are major employers for Clallam County, Winter said.

Just as important, an agreement already negotiated would relieve the corporation that owns the dams of liability for aging structures.

The review of dams underway across the nation by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has not played a direct role with the Elwha, as it did last year with the recommendation to remove Edwards Dam on Maine’s lower Kennebec River.

The dams on the Elwha don’t meet present-day environmental requirements. Officials of the Fort James Corp., which owns the dams, have publicly acknowledged they probably couldn’t be relicensed under a normal FERC review for long-term operation.

In 1992, however, Congress exempted the Elwha Dam from long-term licensing and ordered FERC to license the dam on a yearly basis.

“Looking down the road, selling and removing the Elwha Dam now is simply a good business decision supported by the dam owners,” Winter said.

The potential benefits also are obvious to anglers.

Ten distinct runs of salmon and steelhead once had 70 miles of spawning habitat in the Elwha River and its tributaries.

Building the Elwha Dam in 1911 eliminated the fish runs in all but the lower five miles of the river.

If approved by Congress, dismantling of Elwha Dam would begin in two or three years. Removing the dam would open about eight miles of the mainstem and two tributaries for additional spawning, Winters said.

Ironically, most of the Elwha drainage is in Olympic National Park, where it remains protected from logging and in pristine condition.

The upper reaches are prime spawning habitat, but the dams stand concretely in the way of fish passage.

Not until Glines Dam is removed at river mile 13 would the entire 45 miles of mainstem spawning habitat be available to sea-run fish.

Remove the dams, Winter said, and the Elwha fisheries revival could begin.

Demolishing the dams would help rebuild shellfish numbers near the mouth of the river.

Removing the dams opens the potential for the 3,000 salmon and steelhead that currently return to the Elwha to expand to around 400,000. About 32,000 chinook salmon could eventually spawn in the river.

The gene pool for the native run of 100-pounders is still intact in the lower river among the remnant group of early fall chinook salmon, even though these fish run about half the size of their ancestors, Winter said.

Some skeptics doubt the scientists and the potential for a salmon revival.

Even some anglers are scoffing and asking why there aren’t 100-pounders in Olympic Peninsula streams where no dams have been built.

The answer to that question, at least, is simple, Winter said.

“The 100-pounders were never in those other streams. But they were in the Elwha.”

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