The Elwah Dam removal is all the talk around Sequim and Port Angeles lately.  The two big dams on the Elwha River are being removed after years of discussions and negotiating.  In fact, the upper dam, the Glines Canyon Dam, will be the largest dam ever removed in the U.S.  The lower dam, the Elwha Dam, will be removed also.  I took this photo of the Elwha Dam earlier in the year.

Elwah Dam Removal

Elwah Dam and Glines Canyon Dam Removal

The removal is an interesting process.  The first step in removing the Elwha dam will be to lower the reservoir’s water level by using the existing water intakes and spillways.  A temporary diversion channel will be excavated through the left spillway to allow Lake Aldwell to be drained.  Cofferdams, temporary structures acting as dams, will be installed to direct outflow into a temporary diversion channel. After all the water is drained from the lake, the dam can be removed and the original river channel restored.

The first step in removing the Glines Canyon Dam will be diverting water through the penstock to lower Lake Mills Reservoir.  The dam will be “notched down” on alternating sides to create temporary spillways that will be used to continue draining the reservoirs.  When the water is low enough, the dam will be blasted and the river channel restored.

Elwah Dam

Of course, the whole purpose of removing the Elwah Dam and the Glines Canyon Dam is to restore Salmon habitat.  We won’t know for decades if it works.  For my part, I’ll miss the Elwha Dam as I used to jog down the road to the dam periodically.

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The Elwha River Dams have shut down their electric turbins as of the 1st of June, 2011, and the word is that contractors will start ripping out the dams this September.  The dams have produced electricity for homes and businesses in the Clallam County area for almost a century.  Three turbine generators  have been shut down, two on the Elwha Dam and one on the Glines Canyon Dam.  Tearing down the dams to restore Salmon habitat has been a discussion that extends back a decade or more.  There’s been a lot of controversy about whether removing the dams is the answer to environmental concerns for the wildlife and fish habitat.  We won’t really know for decades.

Elwha River Dams

The implications of tearing out the dams remains to be seen as far as effecting the chain of animal life and vegetation, but we do know how it will effect real estate.  Homes along the lower Elwha River will not be effected as the drainage plan will not cause flooding or raise water levels to threaten any homes on or near the Elwha River.

Above the dames on the lakes that have been in place for almost a hundred years, there are no homes or private property.  Where there are homes on the lower Elwha River, this is and will continue to be a beautiful area, although for some retirees it is too far out of town.  The Elwha River  is about a 10 minute drive where it crosses Highway 101 west of Port Angeles.

Homes rarely come up for sale on the Elwha River, but you can view homes in the Elwha River area on this site:  Port Angeles Homes For Sale.

Elwha River is Rugged and Beautiful

The Elwha River area is rugged and beautiful, and if you’re going to drive around and get familiar with the area, I recommend seeing the Elwha River.

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• Elwah Dam Removal
• Elwha River Dam Removal

The removal of the Elwha River Dam just west of Port Angeles has been talked about for years. The purpose is to restore Salmon habitat, but man’s desire to control the environment never seems to achieve any significant measure of success.

Since government officials seem to have such a tremendous difficulty accurately figuring out how much to tax you and me for all these projects, I thought I might help them out a little. While I’m being sarcastic here and just poking a little fun at government bureaucrats about the removal of the Elwha dams, my mathematical rule could actually be accurate. [Insert laughter here.] So after 30 years of watching projects from Alaska to Washington and beyond, here is Marunde’s Rule of Large Government Save-The-People Project Cost Estimates [With a title like that, you might have thought I am a bureaucrat.]

1. Take the original estimate and for the first round of “surprise” cost increases, just double it (due to “cost overruns, unexpected inflation,” and so on);
2. Take the new estimate (now double the original), and with another “surprise” add 30% to the lastest estimate (due to additional complex issues that were not originally addressed);
3. And for the finale, when the project is finally given the go ahead, tack on another 15% (there will be a lengthy list of items none of us can comprehend justifying this increase).
4. For those of you who wonder about the time period over which these simple rules apply, the last rule is that time does not matter. These rules apply over any period of time for any government involvement in large projects. There is an exception to this last rule. If 10 years pass since the original estimate, and the project has not yet been started, multiply the original estimate by 10 to arrive at the final figure.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Elwah Dam Removal
• Elwha River Dams To Be Ripped Out