ENVIROWATCH

HOW HUMANS TREAT
THEIR SURROUNDINGS,
EACH OTHER, THEMSELVES




Non-profit Seeks Funds for Dam Removal

by Mike Blain
The Free Press

Seeking to hasten the removal of two dams on the Elwha River, several Seattle residents have formed a non-profit organization that hopes to raise at least 25 percent of the money necessary to take down the Glines Canyon and Elwha dams and restore anadromous fish stocks within the Elwha watershed.

Begun by Yvan Rochon, a 35-year-old research scientist employed at Harborview Medical Center, and Bill Mitchell, a naturopathic physician and co-founder of Bastyr University in Seattle, The Elwha Dams Removal Fund will seek financial support from corporations, foundations and individuals.
While numerous environmental groups have done research and lobbying work in support of the dams' removal, this will be the only group dedicated solely to helping to fund the effort. Dam removal and related mitigation projects are projected to cost $147 million to $203 million over 20 years.
Located near Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula, the Elwha River once played host to legendary salmon and steelhead runs. Near the turn of the century, the river's chinook runs often produced salmon that exceeded 100 pounds.
Native Americans who fished the Elwha in the years before the dams have testified that salmon stocks were abundant and fishing occurred year-round.
After construction of the Elwha Dam from 1910 to 1913, and the Glines Canyon Dam from 1925 to 1927, fish passage was blocked to more than 70 miles of the river and its tributaries, limiting salmon and trout production to just the last 4.9 miles of the river. The dams were built without fish passage facilities and the Elwha Dam does not have a federal license to operate. Glines Canyon Dam was licensed by the Federal Power Commission for 50 years in 1926, and has received annual licenses since 1976.
With the establishment of Olympic National Park in 1938, Glines Canyon Dam, as well as 83 percent of the 321-square-mile Elwha watershed, were now located within the park. Due to the dams, salmon and steelhead have essentially been eliminated from an area comprising 19 percent of the park, which has had detrimental effects on other wildlife populations that feed on the fish, such as bald eagles and bears.
The dams have also prevented gravel and sediment from being carried to the lower 4.9 miles of the river. The lower riverbed now consists primarily of rocks and boulders and lacks, for the most part, the gravelly areas that are preferred by spawning salmon and which provide cover for tiny salmon fry.
In addition, the dams have been blamed for outbreaks of a fish parasite called Dermocystidium, which has killed as much as 80 percent of the fish runs before they could spawn in some years. A major outbreak of the parasite began in late September of this year. Scientists say water behind the dams is warmed by the sun and then increases the temperature in the lower river when it is released from the dam. Outbreaks of the parasite usually occur when the river's temperature rises above 60 degrees.
Although Rochon acknowledges that none of the members of the Fund's board have much experience working within environmental groups or doing non-profit fund-raising, he says he and Mitchell felt compelled to do something - anything - to speed up the restoration process. "I'm doing this because no one else was doing it," says Rochon.
The Fund's single-issue focus could help it to be successful, he adds. Unlike donations to other environmental groups, where a member's money can go to support any of dozens of projects, he reasons, contributors to the Fund will know that their money is being used only to fund the removal of the dams, restore the watershed's fish stocks, and mitigate negative effects of the removal on the local community.
Members of the Fund have met with representatives of several environmental organizations - including the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, and Trout Unlimited - in an effort to make sure that the Fund will complement, and not compete with, their efforts. Despite sharp declines in donations to environmental groups over the last two years, Rochon says he doesn't believe the Fund will be fighting with other groups over a shrinking environmental pie.
Pointing out that "totally conservative, ultra-Republican" relatives and acquaintances have expressed support for a fund to remove the dams, Rochon says he thinks the Fund will be able to garner donations from people who don't normally give to environmental projects by virtue of its tangible, single-issue focus.
Shawn Cantrell, director of the rivers project for the Seattle office of Friends of the Earth, agrees with that prediction. "I see this as a beneficial addition to the overall campaign to remove the Elwha dams."
Cantrell says his group does not see the Fund as competition for funding, but rather as a group that could help the effort by engaging people outside the mainstream environmental movement. "We'll work with them and try to assist in whatever way we can."
Currently, the dams sell all their power to the Daishowa America Mill in Port Angeles, supplying about 40 percent of the mill's power needs. The mill has agreed to buy that amount of power from the Bonneville Power Association if the dams are removed. The James River Corporation, the owner of the dams, has agreed to the sale and removal of the dams.
Throughout the 1980s, the licensing of the dams was a constant source of conflict, especially considering the national policy implications of licensing a dam within a National Park. In an effort to avoid protracted legislation and considerable expense for all parties, Congress passed the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act, which was signed into law by President Bush in 1992. The act authorized the Secretary of the Interior to acquire and remove the dams if it was determined that their removal would meet the act's goal of "full restoration of the Elwha River ecosystem."
Critics of the act, including U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton and area residents who use the lakes formed by the dams, argue that removing the dams will harm the local economy and might set a precedent for the removal of other dams.
Rochon counters that removal of the Elwha dams will not set a precedent, because no other project in the country offers the opportunity to restore fish stocks in such a large undeveloped area, while having a minimal impact on users of hydroelectricity.
He adds that the the Fund is currently seeking board members from the Port Angeles area and is dedicated to working with the local community to minimize any negative effects of dam removal on the local economy. Granting that the group will inevitably be attacked as just another bunch of "urban elites" trying to tell Port Angeles area residents what to do, Rochon says the Fund will also work to ensure that local labor is used whenever possible on removal and restoration projects. "The dams were built in the name of progress," says Rochon. "We are asking that they be removed in the name of progress."

For more information, contact the Elwha Dams Removal Fund at 523-8358.



Build Green, Catch Some Rays
Want to learn how to start putting the "eco" back into "eco-nomics"? Head down to "Solar '95" in Portland the weekend of October 14th and tour some solar homes, hear the latest on eco-friendly building techniques, and saddle up to some real live electric cars.

Sponsored by the Solar Energy Association of Oregon, the "New Ideas for Building the Future" conference will feature a melange of speeches, presentations and displays. Topics to be covered include: building solar homes, recycled building materials, straw bale construction, photovoltaic systems, sustainable communities, electric vehicles, energy-related Web sites, and national and regional energy policy.
The program will take place at the School of Business Administration at Portland State University and runs from 8:30am to 5:30pm on Saturday, Oct. 14. Conference fees are $40 for association members, $30 for non-members and $20 for students. Self-guided solar home tours will be offered on Sunday for $10 per carload. For more information, call (503)635-4956.



For the Sake of Cheap Beer Cans
With three of the four nuclear reactors in Washington state non-functional, the debt for construction and cleanup of the reactors amounts to $530 million a year, which is passed on to electric customers by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), the major seller of electricity in the state. Now the aluminum industry, which uses about a third of the BPA's electricity, is on the brink of an agreement with the BPA which would exempt it from helping to foot the bill for nuclear debt.

Local aluminum smelters have a long history of public subsidies. Although the smelters agree to some inconveniences, such as using much of their electricity at night, the BPA still sells power to the smelters at approximately $100 million below cost each year. The average household served by the BPA must pay an extra $2 a month to finance this subsidy.
The production of aluminum involves so much electricity that the metal has been dubbed "congealed electricity." Smelters in Washington state are also among the least efficient. The average Washington smelter uses 17,900 kilowatt-hours of electricity to produce a ton of aluminum; the world average is 15,700 kwh per ton. (Northwest Conservation Act Coalition and Northwest Environment Watch)



High-Tech, High-Pollution
The Portland Free Press reports that high-tech industries are, in fact, large producers of toxins. The production of integrated circuits (ICs) for use in computers and other electronics, involves the use of glycol ether, a reproductive toxin, hydroflouric acid (a highly-corrosive chemical), toxic gases (such as arsine), and various other volatile chemicals, many of them carcinogenic.

The article cites a University of California study showing that people working in IC assembly plants suffer nearly three times the occupational illness of the average manufacturing worker. A toxic gas leak from a plant in San Jose, California caused the evacuation of a neighborhood in 1992.
Intel recently announced plans to build a major assembly plant near Tacoma. Oregon has been a booming center for IC production. High-tech producers may be attracted by laws created by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, which allow polluters to dilute toxins with tap water and flush them down the drain.





Environmental News from Around the State and the Region.


SNOHOMISH COUNTY. Associated Sand & Gravel leased a 200-acre farm near Tualco Loop Road, with the intention of mining.

Unfortunately, the farm was zoned as farmland, not as mining land. Instead of going through normal channels to apply for a rezone (which involves informing neighbors), the company tried to make a quiet amendment to county charters, claiming that the property was mistakenly left out of mining designation. When agricultural and citizen groups got wind of this, a call-in campaign prevented the county council from approving the amendment.
Critics of the company now fear that mining interests may seek to change zoning ordinances to permit the mining of farm-zoned property. The farm the company leased is on a riverside opposite a popular public park, and could affect water quality. (People for the Preservation of Tualco Valley)


WASHINGTON. Retro is the fashion this year, and the state legislature did its best to deliver a transportation program based on the 1950s. Funding for Regional Transit Authority light rail was slashed from $9 million to $2.5 million, with Governor Lowry narrowly averting a total phase-out of the RTA. In contrast, the legislature increased funding for highway construction, and sought to divert minimal funds for bicycle programs to other recipients. (Alt-Trans)


WASHINGTON. A list which ranks 627 hazardous toxic sites in the state is available from the state's Department of Ecology by calling (800)826-7716. The list ranks sites by the level of concern to human health and the environment, and is used by the state to determine where clean-up funds are directed.


CALIFORNIA. The first pulp mill in North America to convert to chlorine-free production is the Louisiana-Pacific Mill in Sonoma California. Chlorine produces the by-product dioxin, a potent cancer-causer. Robert Simpson, head of Louisiana-Pacific's Western region, states that the non-use of chlorine allows more water at the mill to be reused, thus cutting costs. (Washington Citizens for Recycling)



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Contents on this page were published in the October/November, 1995 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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