Today, the Condit Dam on Washington’s White Salmon River blew up. Here’s video that I captured from the PacifiCorps-sponsored removal site. (There’s more at American Rivers, here.)
Years and years of tireless effort by residents of the White Salmon watershed and their allies led to today. As I wrote about the breaching of the Elwha dams earlier this year, “In Cascadia, most of our problems, like these dams, are things we made ourselves. We can unmake them, too. All it takes is effort. A lot of it. Sometimes for a long time.”
I was sad to see the dam go, as a child I had alot of great memories of playing on the lake and fish down below the dam. It was a beautiful lke and I will miss it alot. 🙁
I am curious about the environmental balance that was struck by benefits of the dam removal towards fish restoration against loss of habitat, recreation loss, and the damage caused by the sediment that was instantaneously released. Oh – and we lose a source of clean power as well. I’d be interested in the economic analysis that includes the environmental impacts.