PORT ANGELES — The Elwha River has begun to be returned to its natural channel, which once was blocked by the Elwha Dam.
Since the diversion Friday, the river forks at the dam site, with water being split between the 90-foot canyon that it used to call home and a man-made channel a stone’s throw away to the west.
The man-made channel, which was created when the dam was built, will be abandoned after a series of coffer and check dams is removed, said Olympic National Parks spokeswoman Barb Maynes.
That could happen as early as Monday.
The man-made channel eventually will be filled with soil dug out of the canyon.
Excavation still will occur at the entrance of the canyon, where a cofferdam partially stands, for the next four to six weeks.
Once that is removed, Lake Aldwell, the reservoir made when the dam was finished in 1913, will be drained fully, and migrating fish will be able to pass for the first time in about 100 years.
“The salmon won’t be able to get up until the reservoir is fully drained,” Maynes said.
The contractor removing the Elwha Dam, once 108 feet tall, and the Glines Canyon Dam upstream has until September 2014 to complete the project, which began in September.
Brian Krohmer, Barnard Construction project manager, said the company is aiming to have the Elwha Dam removed by the end of the summer.
Glines Canyon Dam, built in 1927, has been scheduled to be completely dismantled in early 2014.
Krohmer said he can’t be more specific, adding, “It’s a long ways out and there’s a lot of unknowns.”
There, Barnard is using an excavator equipped with a hydraulic hammer to chip away at the top of the large structure from a barge.
About 60 feet has been removed from the once-210-foot structure, located inside the park.
The dam gets wider closer toward its base, which means progress can slow as crews get closer to the end.
Eventually, the dam will be wide enough for the excavator to be secured at the top, he said.
“At some point, we won’t be able to use that barge anymore,” Krohmer said.
The dams are being removed as part of a $325 million federal project to restore the Elwha River’s ecosystem and its once-famous salmon runs.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
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