Oregon Dam Blasted Loose As Demolition Begins

[MarvB]

As part of a $17 million hydroelectric plant decommissioning, Portland General Electric (PGE) cracked the concrete face of the Marmot Dam on the Sandy River in Oregon Tuesday, beginning a demolition the utility said ushers in a "new era" for fish, wildlife and public recreation in the greater Sandy Basin.

PGE developed a decommissioning plan for its Bull Run Hydroelectric Project involving 23 stakeholders. The plan also calls for the removal of Little Sandy Dam. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved the decommissioning. Heavy equipment is now taking away the dam's concrete chunks, which eventually will be recycled into gravel for roadbeds.

The Sandy River has now begun the process of becoming more open to "fish, wildlife and people," said PGE CEO Peggy Fowler. The river is now "a step closer" to restoration. "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 47-foot Marmot's electric generation operations are no longer sustainable or needed, PGE said while undertaking the largest hydroelectric dam removal ever in Oregon. With the dam's 22 MW power output no longer needed, the Sandy River will return to the status of a free-flowing river for the first time in nearly a century.

The controlled explosion weakened the dam, culminating a five-year process that began with PGE, then part of Enron Corp., agreeing to shut down the Bull Run hydroelectric facilities at the dam.

As part of the decommissioning, PGE is donating 1,500 acres of its Sandy River Basin land as the centerpiece of a planned 9,000-acre natural resource and recreation area serving the Northwest.

In the early 1900s, PGE developed the Bull Run hydroelectric project in the Sandy Basin. The project included the Marmot Dam; a concrete-lined canal that took water from Marmot Dam through three tunnels to the Little Sandy River; the 16-foot-high Little Sandy Dam; a 15,000-foot-long wooden-box flume; Roslyn Lake; and the 22 MW powerhouse.

 

[1_pointer]

Is this the same PGE in Erin Brokovich??

 

[MarvB]

Might as well be...Southern California is kind of it's own state
though I don't think the three-eyed folks from Hinkley were worried too much about the salmon run back in the EB era