Popular fishery could get dam
The Palouse-Rock Lake Conservation District might build a dam at the outlet of Rock Lake, a popular trout and bass fishery in Whitman County.
“We’re just in the first tiny baby-step stage,” said Dan Harwood, project coordinator, who applied for a $124,000 state grant for a feasibility study.
“First we need to know how much water flows through the lake,” he said, noting that the idea of a dam was explored first in 1917, around the time footings for a proposed irrigation dam were constructed. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers looked into building a dam starting in the late 1930s, he said.
“Our rough data indicates there may not be enough water to qualify, but we don’t know,” Harwood said. “This is just a matter of ‘what if.’ “
Gov. Chris Gregoire and the Washington Legislature have encouraged watershed planning groups around the state to explore creating more water storage in the Columbia River basin. At least 17 applications have been made to the Department of Ecology for state money for feasibility studies this year, Harwood said.
“We probably won’t hear back until July,” he said. “If it’s approved, the study would take three or four years, and we’d have to get stakeholder comment and other studies. Anything further is way off in the future.”
The grant application suggests the dam would provide cool water storage for agricultural uses and fish and wildlife in the lake and downstream while possibly generating a small amount of electricity.
“We don’t have any intention of doing anything to hurt the lake or the fishing – I love the lake,” said Harwood.
Rock Lake is nearly eight miles long, up to 300 feet deep in some areas, up to a half-mile wide and bordered for much of its length by basalt cliffs. The lake is fed primarily by Rock and Pine creeks.
No plans have been made for the potential dam’s height, Harwood said. But, for example, a dam that raised the water 50 feet at the south end would not affect the falls where Rock Creek tumbles into Rock Lake at the north end, he said. Yet “it would store more than 100,000 acre-feet of water that could be an advantage for salmon and steelhead downstream in the Snake River.”
If it gets that far, a dam project could benefit sportsmen who fish the lake. The existing boat launch, which is rocky and undeveloped, would be inundated if the lake is dammed. There’d have to be a new one if sportsmen were to continue using the lake.
“A lot of people would like to see a good boat launch developed, but then there are the people who would miss the fun of seeing fishermen trying to launch their boats in a good wind at the launch we have now,” Harwood said.