Overview and History
The White Salmon is a glacier-fed river originating on the slopes of Mount Adams and emptying into the Columbia River. Condit Dam is about 3.3 miles (5.3 km) upstream of the confluence. The area below the dam is part of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, while parts of the river upstream belong to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers system. The area is famous for its natural beauty and recreational activities such as whitewater rafting and fishing. Impoundment of the river in 1911 removed 33 miles (53 km) of steelhead habitat and 14 miles (23 km) of salmon habitat.
The Condit Hydroelectric project, named after its lead engineer B.C. Condit, was built by Northwestern Electric Company in 1913 to supply electrical power for the Crown Willamette Paper Company in Camas, Wa. Surplus power was sold to Portland customers via a power line across the Columbia River. The project was acquired in 1947 by its current owner, PacifiCorp.
The facility consisted of Condit Dam 45°46′02″N 121°32′16″W / 45.76722°N 121.53778°W / 45.76722; -121.53778 in Klickitat County, and its impoundment, Northwestern Lake; a woodstave pipeline that transports water to a surge tank and auxiliary spillway; two penstocks and the powerhouse. Two horizontally mounted francis turbines and generators produced electrical power, and the exhausted water rejoined the river about a mile (2 km) downstream of the dam.
The original design had fish ladders which were twice destroyed by floods shortly after the dam's completion. The Washington State Fisheries Department then required Northwestern Electric to participate in a fish hatchery instead of rebuilding the fish ladders. This ended natural salmonid migration on the river.
In 1996, the federal government ordered PacifiCorp to alter the dam and add fish ladders to meet environmental codes. PacifiCorp deemed the modifications too expensive and asked to decommission the dam instead. The project operated under annual license extensions until the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved decommissioning. The dam was breached at noon (Pacific Time) on October 26, 2011.
At the time, it was the largest U.S. dam to be removed. In 2012, the Elwha Ecosystem Restoration Project on the Olympic Peninsula is slated to remove the larger Elwha Dam and Glines Canyon Dams.
Read more about this topic: Condit Hydroelectric Project
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