Help Remove Condit Dam and Restore Wild Steelhead and Whitewater Recreation to Mount Adams Country
PacifiCorp reports that it will once again defer removal of Condit Dam for another year.
Condit Dam is a 125-foot dam on the White Salmon River about three miles upstream from the White Salmon’s confluence with the Columbia. The Wild and Scenic White Salmon River is fed by springs and Mount Adams glaciers and is an amazing Northwest gem. Just an hour from Portland, the White Salmon is a popular white-water recreation destination for avid paddlers and boaters from across the region. Condit Dam has NO fish passage, and the White Salmon River is home to steelhead and salmon populations that are currently threatened with extinction.
PacifiCorp owns Condit Dam and agreed to remove it in 2006 because of the massive expense of updating the dam and building the newly required fish ladders. The project has been delayed for over three years now, and the main obstacle is that Washington State has not yet granted PacifiCorp the Clean Water Act permit (a 401 permit) that they need to move forward with the project. We need your help to ask the Washington Department of Ecology to make Condit Dam removal a priority and issue the needed Clean Water Act permit this month. If PacifiCorp doesn’t receive the permit this month, dam removal will likely be delayed another year.
Yet another delay for fish populations that continue to teeter on the brink of extinction is maddening at the least. As PacifiCorp makes an estimated $ 4 million each additional year it operates, one might assume they aren’t as upset about the situation as conservationists, fishermen, and tribes are. Yet the delay is at least technically due to the lack of a Clean Water Act permit from the State of Washington. The State needs to make this project a priority. Please take a minute to call the state or send an email asking that they make this project a priority and grant a Clean Water Act permit this month to PacifiCorp for removal of Condit Dam.
Please call or email Loree (sounds like laur-A) Randall today and ask her to issue PacifiCorp the Clean Water Act permit for Condit Dam removal this month: 360-407-6068 or lora461@ecy.wa.gov.
Tuesday, April 6th - Learn More about the White Salmon River and dam removal
Time: 5:30 till 8 PM
$10 all you can eat wood fired pizza and organic salad. Cash bar.
We hope you can join us for an evening of food and drink and an update on the current status of Condit Dam removal and restoration of the White Salmon River. We will be joined by partner organizations including American Whitewater, Friends of the White Salmon, Friends of the Columbia Gorge, American Rivers, Trout Unlimited, and Columbia Riverkeeper. Come get your questions answered on what's going on with the dam removal and find out what you can do to help.
Space is limited, so please RSVP as soon as possible to Emily@gptaskforce.org.
Solstice Wood Fired Café
415 W. Steuben St. (Hwy. 14)
Bingen, WA
Click here to read a recent article in The Columbian about this delay.
Click here to read an editorial from The Columbian staff about the delay.
