The largest US dam-removal effort to date has begun

[PufPuf23]

The largest US dam-removal effort to date has begun
As US dams age, removal is always an option—and it can be done well.

ALKA TRIPATHY-LANG - 1/11/2024, 4:00 AM, Ars Technica

Wending its way from the Olympic Mountains to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Washington’s Elwha River is now free. For about century, the Elwha and Gilnes Canyon Dams corralled these waters. Both have since been removed, and the restoration of the watershed has started.

The dam-removal project was the largest to date in the US—though it won’t hold that position for long. The Klamath River dam removal project has begun, with four of its six dams—J.C. Boyle, Copco No. 1, Copco No. 2, and Iron Gate—set to be scuppered by the end of the year, and the drawdown started this week. (In fact, Copco No. 2 is already gone.)

Once the project is complete, the Klamath will run from Oregon to northwestern California largely unimpeded, allowing sediment, organic matter, and its restive waters to flow freely downriver while fish like salmon, trout, and other migratory species leap and wriggle their way upstream to spawn.

Article with maps and photos: https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/01/the-largest-us-dam-removal-effort-to-date-has-begun/

With one down, Klamath dam removal proceeds on schedule

By Juliet Grable (Jefferson Public Radio); July 16, 2023 6 a.m. Updated: July 18, 2023 11:17 a.m

Removing the Copco 2 Dam takes deconstruction crews one step closer to drawdowns of the remaining three reservoirs next January.

The first of four hydroelectric dams along the Oregon-California border has been removed from the main stem of the Klamath River. All that remains of the dam known as Copco 2 in Siskiyou County, California, is the headworks of a diversion tunnel adjacent to the now free-flowing river.

“As little as a month ago, it was a 35-foot concrete dam that spanned the entire width of the Klamath River right there,” says Mark Bransom, CEO for the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, which is overseeing dam removal.

From a nearby overlook of red volcanic rock, an excavator looks like a child’s toy as it chips away at the remnants of the concrete wall that was embedded in the river.

When complete, the overall project will be the biggest dam removal in U.S. history and will reopen 400 miles of fish habitat that was cut off for more than a century.

Deconstruction activities on Copco 2 will continue until September. Getting this first dam out of the way takes deconstruction crews one step closer to drawdowns of the remaining three reservoirs next January.

More article and photos at: https://www.opb.org/article/2023/07/16/klamath-dam-removal-copco-2/

[Lulu KC]

1. Yay! n/t

[Botany]

2. Important work

When they were built people thought they were doing the right thing but now we
know that removing them is the right thing to do.

[2naSalit]

3. YAY!!!

Now do the four upper Snake River dams before the northern Rockies die.

[PufPuf23]

4. Here is a rare treat about the Klamath River and how appeared 100 years ago.

California's Redwood Wonderland - Humboldt County; Thornbury, Sunset Press 1923

The entire book is some kind of wonderful. Two of the later chapters describe a trip by dugout canoe from Somes Bar (mouth of Salmon River where Humboldt County meets Siskiyou County to where the Klamath meets the Pacific Ocean at Requa in 1921. The road from the coast reached Orleans in 1921. Chapter XXIV (page 148) Down the Klamath and Chapter XXV (page 156) From Martin's Ferry to Requa (Martin's Ferry is the is the intersection with Bald Hills Road (still partially unpaved) that is the back entrance to Redwood National Park and traverses Lady Bird Johnson Grove prior to joining 101.

What is described is country that after less than 75 years of miners and other settlers and the impact of their activities, most that occurred when the area was only accessed by mule, horse, or foot. Thornbury drove to Orleans and went by trail to Somes Bar. The dams being removed are father up the Klamath in Siskiyou County and Oregon.

Here is the link to a pdf (page 149): https://archive.org/details/californiasredwo00thor/page/148/mode/2up

[AllaN01Bear]

5. yay.

i remember reading in a book that meals on wheels let me check out said that one could at one time ride a river boat the entire length of the klamath.

[Bobstandard]

6. Iron gate dam was breached yesterday,

The reservoir behind the dam is now flushing out through a portal opened on January 11, 2024. Decades of fine silt will be flushed down the river. This breaching happened with little notice because a weeks worth of rain created conditions conducive to a robust ‘flushing’ action. Replanting of millions of seeds, and many thousands of native plant seedlings will start immediately as the reservoir draws down. The dam itself, already being deconstructed, will be completely demolished in the coming months.

[Bobstandard]

7. Irongate dam on the Klamath was breached yesterday, January 11, 2024!

The reservoir behind the dam is now flushing out through a portal opened on January 11, 2024. Decades of fine silt will be flushed down the river. This breaching happened with little notice because a weeks worth of rain created conditions conducive to a robust ‘flushing’ action. Replanting of millions of seeds, and many thousands of native plant seedlings will start immediately as the reservoir draws down. The dam itself, already being deconstructed, will be completely demolished in the coming months.

[NNadir]

8. A lift to the spirit of John Muir.

In his time, he railed against the industrialization of wilderness.

It is of some depressing irony that the Sierra Club, the organization he founded has become an organized mob in favor of the industrialization of wilderness. While the media refers to the Sierra club as an "environmental" organization, I rather see it as an industrial development club.