The largest dam removal in
the Pacific Northwest in 40 years began on
Tuesday with blasts of 4,000 pounds of explosives, the dam's owner, Portland
General Electric, said. Eight feet of
the 47-foot-tall Marmot Dam was removed by Tuesday afternoon and over the next
two months there will be five more blasts, along with jackhammers working
daily, company spokesman Mark Fryburg said.
"Today, this partnership
took a great step toward restoring a breathtaking river for fish, wildlife and
people," Portland General Electric CEO and President Peggy Fowler said in
a statement. "We celebrate the future of a watershed that will provide
unimpeded salmon and steelhead passage from the slopes of Mt.
Hood to the Pacific
Ocean."
The Marmot Dam on the Sandy
River about 40 miles east of Portland was built almost 100 years ago along with
the nearby 16-foot-high Little Sandy Dam, which will be destroyed next summer,
the utility said. Removing the two dams
will allow the Sandy to flow freely from Mt. Hood to
the Columbia River.
Portland General Electric,
the biggest utility in Oregon,
is spending $17 million to remove the two dams in coordination with 23
environmental, governmental and civic organizations. When the dams were built,
they ruined a natural fish run that biologists say the fish will rediscover and
repopulate once the dams are removed, Fryburg said. The
river is home to winter steelhead, spring Chinook and coho
salmon, all listed on the federal Endangered Species Act, Portland General
Electric said.
"Steelhead and salmon
need free-flowing rivers to survive," said Mike Myrick, a member of the
Sandy River Chapter of Northwest Steelheaders.
"Removal of Marmot Dam is a historic moment in salmon recovery taking
place in the backyard of metropolitan Portland."
