2006 was a dry summer (remember that through all the rain?)  On Sept. 27, 2006
it was announced in a big article with picture of the lower dam flood gate open
that extra water was released to provide for migrating salmon on account of
the low flow due to the drought.  So where will the water come from after the
dams and lakes are destroyed?

The Elwha Fiasco -  An environmental Disaster in the making - at great $ cost.
In 1992, congress decreed that the elwha river should be
restored ~  The bill defined everything else but left what
the word "restoration" meant would be left to the imagination.

In 1997, it appeared that the Republican congress would not fund this disaster,
so a group of local folks (REAL - Rescue Elwha Area Lakes) got together with
all three 24th district legislators in Jim Hargrove's office and composed a bill
which would have begun the process of planting salmon egg boxes in the Elwha -
the only effort in the past 20 years to actually do something to assist the salmon.
The environmentalists BITTERLY OPPOSED IT.

When Al Gore was running for president, and was scheduled to speak in Tacoma,
Jim Hargrove called and asked for three copies of the REAL video tape on the
Elwha.  Being an elected democrat, he was on the speaker's platform and handed
those tapes to Gore, Patty Murray and the governor (who's name I forget).  So,
there you have it, folks.  .

In 1994, the Park Service authorized a survey of birdlife in and around the two lakes
on the Elwha.  The survey was done by Martha Jordan, a well-know bird expert
and secretary of the Trumpeter Swan Society. Following is a list of birds she
observed during the period: July 1994 through March 1995:  The following was
conveniently left out of their EIS.

Common name                        Scientific Name                    Nesting?

Not seen in the survey, but observed by others :
    Spotted Owl
 

                                                                          Y

    The latest:  Jan 10, 06,  The Park Service now has announced a plan to import Fishers
    onto the peninsula.  The Fisher is named that because they are efficient fish killers
    They were exterminated in order to save the fish - -so now the enviros in government
    have re-introduced them, apparently to keep down the fish population so that they
    still have a salmon shortage to fuel their magnificant obsessions.

Early settlers saw the need and potential for electrical power and an enterprising Port Angeles
Businessman,  Tom Aldwell  put together a company to harness the power of the Elwha
River,  completing one dam in 1913 and a second one in 1927.  Unfortunately, he managed
to get around state law which called for a fish ladder to be constructed on a salmon bearing
stream that you dammed, be getting the legislature to accept a small hatchery he built near
the lower dam in lieu of the fish ladder.  The state susequently abandoned the hatchery

    An error that could have been corrected any time in the past 93 years, but Corporate greed
    and "environmentalists" have combined to prevent it

Now the federal government has purchased the dams along with about 900 acres of good timber land
associated with them  And are beginning  destroying the dams and lakes
 

            Trumpeter Swans on Lake Aldwell
     Why do Environmental groups and the NPS want them evicted????
  These gorgeous birds (world's largest waterfowl) feed on plants which grow in the
    bottom of the shallow upper part of the lake.  A government  sponsored survey
    (carefully left out of the NPS's EIS) says they  represent 50% of all the swans found
    on the Olympic Peninsula.

    Ed Note:  Mary Mapes of Rathergate fame was a Seattle KIRO producer
    for 15 years.  During that time, I pursuaded KIRO to come over and tape the
    Trumpeters   on Lake Aldwell.  Reporter, Chris Legeros called me one morning
    and said he was on  his way to meet me at the lake with a cameraman. About
    an hour later, he called back  to tell me that someone at KIRO had called the
    Sierra Club to see if they should do this  shot and were told, "NO!"  So, KIRO
    management called him back even though he was  on his way. Was Mapes
    involved? - don't really know , but it sure figures.  And it clearly shows the power
    of the environmentalists over the news media.

     Among the anticipated results of this folly:
1- Effective elimination of  salmon spawning in the river -
     Destroying salmon habitat to "Save" Salmon ????

    The lower five miles of the river is historically a very productive salmon spawning habitat
    and The only spawning habitat of the magnificent Elwha Chinook.   The govern-
    ment's  EIS (plus simple observation) tells us the level of particulates in the river when
    the 20 million plus cubic yards of material estimated to reside behind the dams (1992
    Gov't survey now 18 years out of date)  is released into the river by destruction of the
    dams, that will be fatal to fish.  Their EIS also states that the river  bottom will rise
    some six feet (smothering all salmon eggs)  This means the channel will spread out,
    probably flooding  the Elwha tribe's reservation and  perhaps disabling the City of
    Port Angeles ranney well  from which the city gets it's water.  ( But, the taxpayers will
    pay for fixing all that. and it won't be included in the bill)

2-Loss of some 19 megawatts of cheap, renewable electric power which is the only significant
   source of power on the peninsulabesides the Bonneville power  line which comes from
    one substation at Discovery Bay.  The current 19 megawatts of power is produced by 90+
    year-old power equipment at the dams which could,  no doubt be greatly increased by
    replacement of this antique equipment.

3- Destruction of the habitat for some 20 species of waterfowl that frequent the lakes-
    including the rare and once endangered Trumpeter Swans, per a year-long, govern-
    ment  supported survey by Martha Jordan, biologist, waterfowl expert and secretary
    of the Trumpeter Swan Society,  paid for by the NPS and significanltly left out of the EIS
 

4- Elimination of two beautiful lakes which have provided local residents and tourists with
    opportunities for fishing, boating and swimming for nearly a century.

5- Possible serious flooding and other negative results in the lower five miles of the river.
    That area is fairly flat and residents have already started negotiations with the city for
    connection to the city's sewer system, since they know their septic systems are likely to
    fail.

6- Possible destruction of home water supplies for some Clallam County residents.  The
    upper lake (Mills) is 145 feet deep (enormous pressure) and has a fault line running
    diagonally across it.  There is no way of knowing how much water is being injected into
    that fault or where it goes.  If someone's well goes dry when the lake is drained, there
    will be no way of proving what caused it.

7- Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars wasted.  The real cost is unknown.  But, the 1992
    estimate was $329 million.  That figure in today's dollars would be at least half a billion -
    and who ever heard of a major government project with indefinite parameters that was
    completed for the first estimate?

 
 

            Salmon and Steelhead below Elwha dam
          trying to find a way up.  Don't they deserve a chance?
Their spawning and rearing habitat will be destroyed  -  To save Salmon?

    So, what do they promise for creation of this environmental disaster???
    They claim 400,000 salmon in thirty years.  In 30 years the "dam busters"
    will all be comfortably retired on their government pensions and nobody
    will remember what was done or why.  The fish they promise will be mostly
  pink and chum salmon - - lesser value fish of which we already have a surplus

    Pinks and Chum salmon don't feed in fresh water.  When they hatch out,
    they just get into the current and float to salt water where they feed and
    grow.  They can be hatched in any stream that feeds into salt water.
  A few years ago, the state of Alaska chopped up millions of Pinks and Chum
   and dumped them in the ocean because they were a glut on their market.

They sure don't need the Elwha river to spawn and will compete with the
Coho, Sockeye, Chinook and Steelhead trout the river is capable of producing
So, the magnificent Elwha Chinook are to be traded for a bunch of junk
fish of which we already have a surplus.

In 1996, Rescue Elwha Area Lakes (REAL) initiated a study by Robert Crittenden,
(Phd from the U of W school of fisheries) to determine what could be done to
actually save Elwha salmon.  The study (paid for by popular subscription no tax
dollars involved) concluded that the middle river area should immediately be stocked
with Coho and Chinook in anticipation of a fish ladder being built at the lower dam
before they began returning. (or, as an alternate, a trap-and-haul operation)

An estimate by a well known and well respected Washington State Fisheries
consultant indicated that could be done for about $Four Million.  A far cry
from half a billion.

                    The Elwha Project is not about salmon!
It is about getting more land for the Tribe and for the National Park and
furthering the Wild Lands Plan to turn half of the US into one huge animal
reserve, a plan which includes destruction of the snake river and Columbia
dams which are essential to the prosperity of the Pacific Northwest.
Destroying the Elwha is the dress rehearsal for that disaster.

This is a major environmental disaster which was to be done in '07'-or '08'  or '09'?
at a huge cost - - nobody knows how much.  It is being sold to the public as "to
save salmon",  But the Elwha salmon will be the big losers in the deal. The big
winners are a team of bureaucrats who have been "studying" how to take out
the dams for years - - and don't quite seem able to figure it out - - so your tax
dollars keep supporting them while they figure.

Canadian Geese (Honkers) with their young on Lake Aldwell
 

Wood Ducks on Lake Aldwell

This article appeared in the Peninsula Daily news in 1997 and displays the fact that
the first estimates of dam removal cost were in fact over $320 million.  When I wrote
a letter to the editor in 2003 which mentioned this fact,  the PDN held my letter until
the new park superintendent could respond.  His response claimed that the first
estimate was only $111 million.  The PDN then printed his phony "rebuttal" right
along with my letter.

For additional information, call: Marv at 360 928-3154  I have tons
more information.  The Elwha has been studied to death over a
period of about 25 years. I have a big box of these "studies".

To see a video showing the enormous run of salmon in the 1960s - 50 years after the
dams were built, click on:  GAFFING