PORT ANGELES — Four giant turbine generators in the Glines Canyon and Elwha dams were shut down by 9:19 a.m. today, signaling the end of a century of generating electricity — and another step toward removing the dams to restore the Elwha River’s salmon run.
“Let bygones be bygones,” Elwha Dam power plant supervisor Kevin Yancy said.
“It’s the end of an era on the Elwha,” Yancy added, standing in a power plant control room packed with reporters shortly after he separated the Elwha Dam’s three-generator transmission line from the Bonneville Power Administration grid.
The Glines Canyon Dam’s single 18-foot-diameter turbine was shut down about an hour earlier, at 8:20 a.m.
“K. Yancy, on site to shut down G. Canyon power plant,” Yancy wrote in the dam’s maintenance log.
“Good by Glines.”
Barnard Construction Co. of Bozeman, Mont., will begin tearing down the dams Sept. 17 in a $26.9 million contract with the National Park Service.
The Elwha watershed is in Olympic National Park, as is Glines Canyon Dam.
The dams are being torn down as part of the $327 million Elwha River Restoration Act.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
