County hearings examiner approves permits for Elwha dam removal

February 15th, 2007 - 6:59am
KONP News

(Port Angeles) -- A Clallam County hearings examiner has cleared the way for removal of the Elwha River dams. Yesterday, attorney Kristin Ballinger ruled in favor of most of the permits needed to take out the lower dam on the river.

That dam needed county permits for removal since it is outside the Olympic National Park boundaries.

The 15 permits approved include a number of projects related to taking out the dam as well ranging from building a water treatment plant for the city of Port Angeles, helping mitigate possible problems for the Dry Creek Water district and dealing with buildings that may be in the way of a re-channeled Elwha River. Work to take out the dams on the river is set to begin in two years.

RELATED STORY:

County approves Elwha River dam permits

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Peninsula News Network

More than 20-years after the idea was first brought up, Clallam County has finally issued permits needed to demolish the lower Elwha River dam.

For well over 2-decades, local and federal officials have wrestled with the proposal to tear down the two aging dams on the Elwha River. In fact, it was 15-years ago that Congress signed the Elwha River Restoration Act, which formally set the stage for removing the dams to bring salmon runs back to the Upper Elwha.

Now, the feds have finally come to the point of getting the permits from the county that will allow the demolition to proceed.

This week the county hearing examiner cleared 15-different permits for the Department of the Interior, covering the actual dam removal and other steps such as building a new water treatment plant for the City of Port Angeles. Nearly all of that work has to take place within the river’s floodplain. The feds don’t need county permits to tear down the Glines Canyon dam since it lies entirely within Olympic National Park boundaries.

The county hearing examiner did reject one permit, to build a dike around a building on the lower stretch of the river because it would impact some wetland area.