Crews on Wednesday blasted a hole in a nearly century-old hydropower dam in Washington's south Cascades, marking another step in efforts to restore habitat for threatened and endangered fish in the Pacific Northwest.
The more than 12-story Condit Dam on the White Salmon River is the second-tallest dam to be demolished in U.S. history. Its two turbines produce about 14 megawatts of power, enough for 7,000 homes, but its owner, Portland-based utility PacifiCorp, elected to remove the dam rather than install cost-prohibitive fish passage structures that would have been required for relicensing.
But not everyone in the area is in a giddy mood. Klickitat County Commissioner Rex Johnston says he felt "almost sick." Johnston can't believe people would voluntarily get rid of a non-polluting renewable source of electricity.
"To be destroying any green energy producing form of energy like a hydroelectric dam...That's as good as it gets as far as I'm concerned. That's just a shame to see it go away," Johnston says.
Labels: Carbon Cult
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