Federal stimulus money will hasten removal of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams by about one year after years of delays and will begin providing hundreds of jobs to the North Olympic Peninsula starting this summer, the National Park Service said Wednesday.
The $308 million removal project west of Port Angeles will receive $54 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for mitigation projects that will begin this summer.
Actual removal of the dams to restore salmon habitat will start in 2011 instead of 2012 — a date the park service had set earlier — and will be completed in 2014 as a result of the new funding, said U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies.
“We just didn’t have the money before,” said Dicks, whose 6th Congressional District includes Clallam and Jefferson counties, Wednesday morning.
“We’ve been doing $20 million a year, and now we’ll have the money to go forward. This is a big deal because we are able to accelerate the project,” he said.
“It’s good for the park service, too, to get the thing moving. We’ve been waiting a long time.”
The $54 million allocation is the largest single appropriation from among hundreds of Park Service projects funded with $750 million in Department of Interior stimulus money, Olympic National Park spokeswoman Barb Maynes said.
Largest in U.S. history
Stimulus money will fund nine mitigation projects that will start this summer in preparation for removing the dams, the is largest-ever dam removal project and the second largest restoration project next to the park service’s revival of the Everglades.
The projects include maintaining water quality at the Nippon Paper Industries USA mill on Marine Drive in Port Angeles, and taking measures to protect private property.
Dicks said the Park Service will issue a request for bids by mid-2010 for removal of the dams.
Joint effort
To secure the stimulus funding, the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe worked with Dicks, government agencies and the Puget Sound Partnership, of which Clallam County Commissioner Steve Tharinger is a member.
“We are really happy all the agencies and departments came together in seeing this as having an important impact and need in salmon runs,” tribal Chairwoman Frances Charles said.
“Of course we always wanted to see it happen sooner rather than later.”
Construction was first scheduled to begin in 2004. This is the first time the time line has sped up instead of slowed down.
Removal of the dams was authorized in the federal 1992 Elwha Act to restore salmon habitat on the river once fabled for its dense runs of large salmon.
The construction of the 105-foot Elwha Dam in 1913 and the 210-foot Glines Canyon Dam in 1927 blocked the salmons’ progress up the river and prevented the return of fish to breed.
The cost of the project to remove the damns has more than doubled since 2001, and could end up costing more, Maynes said.
The $308 million budget was established in 2008, and by 2014 could rise to $354 million to cover inflation and potential unanticipated, higher costs.
The park will receive a total of $57.8 million for projects that will include replacing historic roofing throughout the park, replacing the Hoh sewer system, rehabilitating four bridges and replacing electrical cable conduit on Hurricane Ridge Road.
Jobs impact
But the project to remove the dams will have the most impact on jobs.
In March, Clallam County’s unemployment rate climbed to 11.3 percent, and Jefferson County’s to 9.5 percent.
Under the aegis of the federal Davis-Bacon act, the jobs linked to the dam removal will pay prevailing occupation-specific wages, which are “generally the union wage or higher,” Maynes said.
More than 100 people already are employed building two mitigation projects ¬– the Elwha water treatment plant downstream from the new Elwha Bridge and the Port Angeles water treatment plant at the Port Angeles solid waste transfer station west of downtown.
Of 117 workers building the Elwha plant, 76 are from Clallam County and one is from Jefferson County, Maynes said.
The stimulus-funded mitigation projects will employ 150 to 200 more beginning this summer and lasting through 2011, she said.
The number of jobs created by removal of the dams won’t be known until the removal contract is awarded.
The Elwha Dam will be dismantled by drilling holes in the facade followed by controlled blasting.
The Glines Canyon Dam, which is inside the park, will be dismantled by workers wielding diamond-studded saws and conducting controlled blasting.
During removal, the park will set limits on public access to the Elwha Valley and to Olympic Hot Springs Road, down which trucks will rumble with giant chunks of concrete dam.
“There will be mitigation for all that truck traffic,” Maynes said.
Traffic has already increased for construction of the treatment plants, which will clean the sediment-laden water from the Elwha River the dams are removed. The city of Port Angeles gets its drinking water from the Elwha.
On the floor of Lake Mills behind the Glines Canyon Dam, 13 miles from the river’s mouth at the Strait of Juan de Fuca, sit 18 million cubic yards of sediment.
The Elwha Dam, eight miles from the river’s mouth, created Lake Aldwell.
Sediment released
Fine sediment will be released as the dams are dismantled and the lakes drained, while heavier, denser sand will take eight to 10 years to inch down the river.
The Department of the Interior predicts salmon will start returning in abundance within 20 years, and that up to 400,000 will return within 30 years.
Their habitat includes 75 miles of river and tributaries.
“The sooner the system restores itself, the sooner the salmon can get up there and the river can heal itself,” Tharinger said.
Charles recalled tribal elders walking paths along the Elwha River when the dams were built without fish passages.
“They didn’t really approve of it when the dams were put in,” she said.
“They had concerns about fish runs and habitat area. Those above are sort of smiling down now.”
A list of stimulus-fueled National Park Service projects is at http://recovery.doi.gov/nps.
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Staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
