PORT ANGELES — A free-flowing and roaring Elwha River is quickly coming to once again dominate the valley that bears its name.
After nearly two months of demolition, the dam that first conquered it 98 years ago and helped build Port Angeles has begun to recede from the landscape, leaving vestiges of its former self.
Rubble and mud have replaced large portions of the 108-foot concrete structure of the Elwha Dam, where excavators and dump trucks now compete with the Elwha for the valley’s soundtrack.
The powerhouse of the Elwha Dam will be the next building to meet its fate as part of the $325 million federal project to remove the river’s two dams and restore its once-famous salmon runs.
The building has been gutted, and an excavator began tearing into its roof last week.
Powerhouse gear
Some of the powerhouse’s equipment, an old drill press and pieces of transformers, could be seen last week at the top of the dam.
The river once provided electrical power for the developing cities of Port Angeles, Port Townsend and Poulsbo, as well as the Navy yard in Bremerton.
Barnard Construction Co. project manager Brian Krohmer, who is overseeing the demolition of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams, said the building will be demolished by January.
The surge tank adjacent to it should also be gone by then.
Gap on south side
An 18-foot-diameter gap at the south side of the surge tank is all that remains of the large pipes that fed water into the turbines.
For Krohmer, who is more used to building dams rather than taking them down, the pace is a bit refreshing.
“It’s great to see so much of a difference made in such a short period of time,” he said.
“Typically, when you build up, it’s a bit of a slower process.”
But the dams still won’t be fully removed anytime soon.
Dam removal
Barnard Construction crew members have removed 48 feet of the Elwha Dam — which was built in 1913 five miles from the mouth of the river — and 32 feet of the Glines Canyon Dam — built 14 miles upriver in 1927.
The company’s small crew of about a dozen workers is barred from working in the river during fish migratory periods, known as fish windows.
The concern is that any further lowering of the two dams’ reservoirs will harm fish through the release of sediment.
The windows, which last about two months at a time, take up between five and six months of the year; the first started Nov. 1 and will end in January.
Because of the fish window, demolition of the Glines Canyon Dam inside Olympic National Park has been put fully on hold since the river still flows over the top of most of the structure.
At the Elwha Dam, the river flows through a channel blasted from concrete on its west side, where a spillway once stood.
The fish windows will push full demolition of the Elwha Dam to early 2013 and the Glines Canyon Dam — at originally 210 feet tall, the largest ever removed in the nation — a year later.
Still, there’s plenty of work to do.
Along with the powerhouse and surge tank, 9 miles of power lines will be removed over the next 1.5 months.
Crews are also working to repair Whiskey Bend Road, which runs along the east side of Lake Mills, the reservoir of Glines Canyon Dam.
Ecosystem restoration is also under way.
Coho transplanted
This month, the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe began transplanting coho salmon from its hatchery to an area in between the dams.
It’s the first time salmon have swum that stretch of the river since 1913.
Larry Ward, tribal hatchery manager, said the tribe will release 600 coho above the Elwha Dam; 170 have been released since Nov. 1.
The fish are tagged and will be monitored by the tribe.
Additionally, the park began replanting native vegetation along the exposed portions of the lake bed behind Glines Canyon Dam.
The dams’ reservoirs have been drained about 25 feet, exposing swaths of lake bed sediment.
A handful of park staff and Washington Conservation Corps volunteers have been getting their hands dirty since Nov. 8 planting native vegetation where water once stood.
The park’s native-plant center near Sequim has produced 24,850 plants for the project. Commercial growers have contributed another 5,000 Douglas fir and 2,600 bare-root shrubs.
Plants on lake shore
About 2,300 plants have relocated to the lakeshore so far, with another 28,000 to be planted by February.
David Allen, native-plant center manager, said the plants are needed to control erosion and prevent the spread of non-native plant species.
“It’s a clean slate,” he said, adding that they will watch to see what plants do well.
That’s particularly important because the sediment is nutrient-poor, meaning it may be tough for some plants and trees to establish themselves.
Allen said the crew is trying to plant the trees and bushes near logs and other organic material and may have to start adding soil from the nearby forest to give them a boost.
“The site is going to tell us what’s going to work,” he said.
________
Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
