White Salmon River at Husum Falls
THE RIVER
From its origin in meadows on the southwest side of Washington state’s Mt. Adams, the 45 mile long White Salmon River travels through the Mt. Adams Wilderness to connect with Cascade Creek, a major tributary that begins on the White Salmon Glacier at about 11,000 feet altitude.
The river flows through Gifford Pinchot National Forest, passes farms, fields, and woodlands, recharges with water said to come through lava tubes from Indian Heaven Wilderness, runs over rapids, races through steep-walled deep narrow ravines, drops over falls, crosses a lake and flows over Condit Dam, finally to reach the Columbia River, at approximately 130 feet altitude.
The White Salmon and its main tributaries form an intricate life-supporting web that drains 386 square miles of land in Klickitat, Skamania and Yakima Counties. Historically, the river was a very important fishing site for members of the Yakama and Klickitat tribes.
In 1986, a nine-mile section of the lower White Salmon River was designated a Wild and Scenic River, under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Twenty miles of the upper river and Cascade Creek, both located in the National Forest,were designated a Wild and Scenic River by Congress in 2005. The middle section is not a designated wild and scenic river.
The river supports farms, dairies, orchards, white-water rafting, kayaking, recreation, tourism, and fishing in addition to manywildlife species.
THE DAM
Condit Dam lies about 3.3 miles (5.3 km) upstream of the confluence where the White Salmon River empties into the Columbia River. The area below the dam is part of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, while parts of the river upstream belong to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers system. The area is famous for its natural beauty and recreational activities such as whitewater rafting and fishing. Impoundment of the river in 1911 removed 33 miles (53 km) of steelhead habitat and 14 miles (23 km) of salmon habitat.
Condit Dam
The Condit Hydroelectric project, named after its lead engineer B.C. Condit, was built by Northwestern Electric Company in 1913 to supply electrical power for the Crown Willamette Paper Company in Camas, Wa. Surplus power was sold to Portland customers via a powerline across the Columbia River. The project was acquired in 1947 by its current owner, PacifiCorp.
The facility consists of Condit Dam, and its impoundment, Northwestern Lake; a woodstave pipeline that transports water to a surge tank and auxiliary spillway; two penstocks and the powerhouse. Two horizontally mounted francis turbines and generators produce electrical power, and the exhausted water rejoins the river about a mile (2 km) downstream of the dam.
The original design had fish ladders which were twice destroyed by floods shortly after the dam’s completion. The Washington State Fisheries Department then required Northwestern Electric to participate in a fish hatchery instead of rebuilding the fish ladders. This ended natural salmonid migration on the river.
In 1996, the federal government required that PacifiCorp make significant alterations to the dam to meet environmental codes, which included the addition of fish ladders. PacifiCorp deemed the modifications too expensive and applied for decommissioning. Currently, the project is operating under annual license extensions, pending approval from FERC of the decommissioning plan. Dam removal is expected to begin in 2011.
(Text partially excerpted from Wikipedia)
