Boulders shore up Elwha levee to prepare for dams' demolition
A truck carrying tons of large rocks drives atop the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe levee on the Elwha River on Tuesday. -- Photo by Chris Tucker/Peninsula Daily News
Planning begins for party to fete removal of dams
PORT ANGELES -- Olympic National Park officials are hosting a party planning meeting Thursday to flesh out ideas for a September celebration of the removal of the Elwha River dams, park spokesman Dave Reynolds said Tuesday.
The public is not invited to the meeting of the Elwha Dam Removal Event Planning Group, which will gather at 1 p.m. at park headquarters, 600 E. Park Ave., Port Angeles, Reynolds said.
The meeting will include representatives from the National Park Service, the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, the cities of Port Angeles and Sequim, business associations such as the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce and Aramark Corp., the international food services company and Olympic National Park concessionaire, Reynolds said.
"This is an initial brainstorming session for members of the community and partners interested in helping with the event in mid-September," he said.
The party has been scheduled for Sept. 16-18, Port Angeles City Manager Ken Myers said.
Reynolds said celebratory events likely will include "a lot of educational opportunities" and a festival.
Choices of the site of the festival include Civic Field and the county fairgrounds, both in Port Angeles, and at least one event at one of the dams.
"We envision things going on all around town," Reynolds said.
In August, Barnard Construction Co. Inc. was awarded a $26.9 million contract to dismantle the edifices.
The 108-foot Elwha Dam and 210-foot Glines Canyon Dam will be torn down to restore the Elwha River's salmon run as part of a $351 million river restoration project.
Paul Gottlieb
PORT ANGELES -- Olympic National Park officials are hosting a party planning meeting Thursday to flesh out ideas for a September celebration of the removal of the Elwha River dams, park spokesman Dave Reynolds said Tuesday.
The public is not invited to the meeting of the Elwha Dam Removal Event Planning Group, which will gather at 1 p.m. at park headquarters, 600 E. Park Ave., Port Angeles, Reynolds said.
The meeting will include representatives from the National Park Service, the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, the cities of Port Angeles and Sequim, business associations such as the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce and Aramark Corp., the international food services company and Olympic National Park concessionaire, Reynolds said.
"This is an initial brainstorming session for members of the community and partners interested in helping with the event in mid-September," he said.
The party has been scheduled for Sept. 16-18, Port Angeles City Manager Ken Myers said.
Reynolds said celebratory events likely will include "a lot of educational opportunities" and a festival.
Choices of the site of the festival include Civic Field and the county fairgrounds, both in Port Angeles, and at least one event at one of the dams.
"We envision things going on all around town," Reynolds said.
In August, Barnard Construction Co. Inc. was awarded a $26.9 million contract to dismantle the edifices.
The 108-foot Elwha Dam and 210-foot Glines Canyon Dam will be torn down to restore the Elwha River's salmon run as part of a $351 million river restoration project.
Paul Gottlieb
By Paul Gottlieb
Peninsula Daily News
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That's where workers are beefing up the tribe's Elwha River levee in preparation for tearing down the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams later this year.
DelHur Industries Inc., a subcontractor for the $8.76 million project, started hauling rocks large and small to the dike in July.
The company plucked them from "two or three" different quarries west of Port Angeles, near Sequim and near the Hood Canal, said Scott McCollough, National Park Service project manager.
DelHur will finish hauling riprap and gravel to the levee in the next several days, Robert Elofson, the tribe's Elwha River restoration director, said Tuesday.
Then pumps and backup generators will be installed.
DelHur, a heavy-construction company, is based in Port Angeles and has offices in Hermiston, Ore., and Durango, Colo.
Company President Tim Holth did not return calls for comment Tuesday on the project.
The levee project is entirely funded with federal stimulus money.
Elofson said the entire project will be completed in about two weeks as part of the $351 million Elwha River restoration project, which includes tearing down the dams beginning in mid-September and ending by March 2014.
A rise of up to 2 ½ feet is expected in the Elwha River as the dams are being dismantled, Elofson said.
The levee barrier is being raised in various places from 2 feet to 4 feet and being extended to more than 8,000 feet, increasing the length by about 20 percent to 25 percent and armoring it to withstand 200-year floods.
A several-hundred-acre parcel on the southern portion of the thousand-acre reservation cannot be used for housing because the levee does not sufficiently protect the property, Elofson said.
The reservation is at the mouth of the Elwha where it empties into the Strait of Juan de Fuca west of Port Angeles.
"We've been waiting for the levy to get done before we build any housing," he said.
The improvement project also will protect existing housing, Tribal Chairwoman Frances Charles said.
"With the experiences we've had in previous years, we have had some flooding."
Without the levee improvements, part of the reservation would have flooded with up to 2 ½ feet of water when the dams are removed, Charles said.
Waters are not expected to rise until about June 2012, about nine months after the dams start coming down, Elofson said.
That's when at least 19 million cubic yards of sediment will begin moving past the dams and downriver, Elofson said.
"That's when the river levels will start changing because it will start restoring the sediment transport."
The sediment, blocked by the dams from coating the riverbed, will provide salmon habitat in an effort to replenish once-prodigious salmon runs that have dwindled to a paltry 3,000 spawning salmon annually since the Elwha Dam was built in 1913 and the Glines Canyon Dam in 1927.
Park officials hope that by 2039, the river will return to its pre-dam level of an estimated 400,000 annually spawning salmon.
Chinook, coho, steelhead, pink, chum and sockeye are species expected to return to the Elwha, entering and exiting the river not far from the levee that will now better protect the reservation.
________
Senior staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: January 12. 2011 12:17AM
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