Welcome to this dam post, I’ll be your dam blogger as we read some dam fine news about a dam removal in Oregon
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Here’s some dam good news for you this fine morning.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The largest dam removal in the Pacific Northwest in 40 years began on Tuesday with blasts of 4,000 pounds of explosives, the dam’s owner, Portland General Electric, said.
Eight feet of the 47-foot-tall Marmot Dam was removed by Tuesday afternoon and over the next two months there will be five more blasts, along with jackhammers working daily, company spokesman Mark Fryburg said.
“Today, this partnership took a great step toward restoring a breathtaking river for fish, wildlife and people,” Portland General Electric CEO and President Peggy Fowler said in a statement.
“We celebrate the future of a watershed that will provide unimpeded salmon and steelhead passage from the slopes of Mt. Hood to the Pacific Ocean.”
The Marmot Dam on the Sandy River about 40 miles east of Portland was built almost 100 years ago along with the nearby 16-foot-high Little Sandy Dam, which will be destroyed next summer, the utility said.
Removing the two dams will allow the Sandy to flow freely from Mt. Hood to the Columbia River.
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