Feds Rule That Condit Dam Will Blow-and-Go Without Local Say

By Dan Richardson, 6-12-06

	Condit Dam, which will be the highest dam in the country to be removed. Photo by Dan Richardson.

When it blows open, releasing the White Salmon River, draining Northwestern Lake and spilling 2 million cubic yards of sediment downstream, Condit Dam’s removal will be the biggest event of the year.

What year? 2008 is the target date, but that’s been pushed back from previous dates.

One thing that won’t hinder the plan to blast open a 12-by-18-foot hole at the base of the dam is state or local environmental regulations. Condit Dam’s owner can tell Gorge area officials to pound sand. Or words to that effect.

Condit’s owner, PacifiCorp, of Portland, won a ruling this month from the Federal Energey Regulatory Commission against two Columbia Gorge counties — Klickitat and Skamania — saying that PacifiCorp won’t have to follow state or local regulations as it removes the 125-foot-high dam.

Opponents of the dam removal say PacifiCorp’s “blow-and-go” of Condit will send a fish-killing sediment plume downstream, not to mention (though, curiously, they rarely do) ruin the view of dozens of lakefront cabins. Supporters shrug that off, saying the removal will restore a river to its wild run. A wild White Salmon would restore miles of upstream steelhead and salmon habitat — and whitewater recreation.

Condit is 3.3 miles up the White Salmon from its confluence with the Columbia. The White Salmon is the border between Skamania and Klickitat Counties.