Dworshak Dam: The 'last of its kind' reaches milestone

Oct. 1—From the beginning, Dworshak Dam, 5 miles east of Orofino, was swathed in controversy.

Lewiston Morning Tribune reporter Hal Hollister wrote on June 15, 1973: "The dedication of a towering Dworshak Dam will be a moment of triumph for those who envisioned the massive structure on the North Fork of the Clearwater River as a boon to the economy of the region and who pushed it through to completion.

"But it will add a final dram of gall to the bitter cup of conservationists and others who warned that the dam would be an 'environmental disaster' and who fought long and hard to prevent its construction."

The narrow canyon of the North Fork first came to the attention of developers in 1887 when Bruce Lipscomb, leader of a Northern Pacific Railway Company, noted that it had prime potential as a dam site. The original title of the proposed dam, "Bruce's Eddy," was named after Lipscomb.

But it was not until 1953 that the Army Corps of Engineers recommended that a dam be built there and scheduled a public hearing.

"With this formal expression of intent," Hollister wrote, "the belligerents in the coming war entered the lists."

Supporters of dam construction included Sen. Henry Dworshak, R-Idaho, for whom the dam is named.

Orofino Mayor A.B. "Bert" Curtis, marshaled the support of chambers of commerce in north central Idaho and made repeated trips to Washington, D.C., to further the cause. The Clearwater Dam Association, a group of businessmen in the Lewiston-Clarkston area and all the local newspapers, including the Tribune, backed the project.

Promoters believed the dam would lessen the danger of floods on the Clearwater and lower Columbia rivers, as well as provide economic benefits and recreational possibilities throughout the region.

Opponents of the dam were limited mainly to the Nez Perce Tribe and conservationists.

Foes of the dam predicted it would destroy the steelhead run on the North Fork and wreak havoc on the region's elk and deer populations by inundating a critical portion of their winter range.

Although it never opposed the construction of the dam, Potlatch Corp. pointed out that if the North Fork became blocked it would spell the end of the company's annual log drive that provided logs for about a third of the annual cut of the company's Lewiston sawmill.

In 1958, the Idaho Fish and Game Department warned that construction of the dam would probably end the steelhead run on the North Fork and cause severe losses among the estimated 25,000 to 38,000 elk that wintered there.

After an independent six-year study, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service corroborated the state's findings and urged that the dam not be built.

Stewart Udall, then U.S. secretary of the Interior, said in 1961 that the value of construction must be weighed against the preservation of wildlife. And that, he said, had not been done by those seeking to block the North Fork with concrete.

In response, Maj. Gen. E.C. Itschner, then chief of the Army Corps, said: "There is no truth in the opposition. They (foes of the dam) are not fair or they are completely ignorant. (The dam) would cause infinitesimal damage."

Col. Paul H. Symbol concurred, saying in October 1960 that only 4% of the big game winter range would be inundated by the dam pool. And Orofino Mayor Curtis added: "Studies show that only 5,329 elk are in the drainage area and only 1% of these are in the pool area. ... This is hardly worth considering."

The Corps also announced that it had plans to preserve the steelhead run and the Potlatch log drive. The fish would be preserved by trapping adult steelhead and hoisting them over the dam in buckets to release into the dam pool to continue to their spawning grounds. It was assumed the smolt would pass safely through the dam's turbines on the return trip to the sea.

The log drive would be sustained by lifting logs from the pool and placing them on trucks to ship to Lewiston or by building a flume that would transport the logs over or around the dam to continue down the Clearwater to Lewiston.

In the end, the momentum for building the dam was too great to be withstood. In June 1960, Congress appropriated $800,000 for a preconstruction study and, two years later, authorized the construction of Dworshak. Total cost of the project was $327 million for flood control, hydropower generation, outdoor recreation and fish and wildlife benefits.

One conservationist summed up the debate in these words: "We lost the battle but the war goes on. Both the friends and foes of dam construction made a record in this fight. The record is there in plain sight as is the dam and the effects it will have on our environment and our economy. The outcome of this fight should be of value in determining how people react to other such proposals. If so, we'll still have salvaged something out of defeat."

On Jan. 27, 1973, the Tribune's Sylvia Harrell wrote that the final buckets of mass concrete were placed at Dworshak Dam. U.S. Rep. Steven D. Symms, R-Idaho, tripped the first of three ceremonial buckets of 8 cubic yards each for a total of 6.6 million cubic yards.

It was enough concrete to build the second-highest concrete gravity dam in the United States, 717 feet high from bedrock to top, and is the third-highest of any type in the country.

The finished dam held back the North Fork of the Clearwater River for 53 miles and could store 3.5 million acre feet of water.

On June 15, 1973, a formal dedication ceremony was held and Idaho Gov. Cecil D. Andrus acknowledged the struggle between the forces that led to final construction.

"We are dedicating what is probably the last of its kind in the Clearwater Basin," Andrus said to the gathered crowd of dignitaries and onlookers.

"This is undoubtedly the last. We speak of multiple use and this is multiple use — the reservoir for recreation, generator facilities and free-flowing rivers. We recognize some of the rivers have to remain free flowing."

Andrus called the construction of the dam a "tribute to community tenacity that will provide enough power to light the lights of all Idaho as well as other states for years to come."

Hedberg may be contacted at khedberg@lmtribune.com.

Dworshak facts

According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, since 1972, $2.8 million in potential flood damages have been prevented by the Dworshak Dam project. The project has a straight concrete gravity dam with a structural height of 717 feet and a crest length of 3,287 feet at elevation 1,613 Mean Sea Level (MSL). The dam is located on the North Fork Clearwater River at River Mile 1.9. The structure is the highest straight-axis concrete dam in the Western Hemisphere. Only two other dams in the United States exceed it in height.

Power came online in March 1973. Three power generating units are in service. A multilevel power intake structure on the upstream face of the dam is used to provide cool water and increased flows to promote salmon and steelhead migrations on the lower Snake River. Dworshak also supports the world's largest steelhead hatchery. Dworshak National Fish Hatchery rears and releases millions of fish annually to supplement natural populations and provide opportunities for recreational fishermen.

Dworshak Reservoir has a gross storage capacity of 3.4 million acre-feet, of which about 2 million acre-feet is used for local and regional flood control; and for at-site and downstream power generation. During fiscal year 2015, regulation at Dworshak Dam also prevented about $18 million in potential flood damages on the Columbia River. The reservoir is about 54 miles long, has a surface area of about 20,000 acres and extends into the Bitterroot Mountains. In early July, reservoir drawdown begins to decrease temperatures on the lower Snake River and support the migrations of anadromous fish such as salmon and steelhead.

The powerhouse has two 100,000-kilowatt units and one 250,000-kilowatt unit — the largest hydroelectric generator in the Army Corps of Engineers' inventory. The powerhouse has a 450-megawatt total rated capacity. During fiscal year 2017, more than 1.35 billion kilowatt hours of electricity were produced.

The filling of the reservoir resulted in the loss of about 15,000 acres of terrestrial habitat. The greatest loss of wildlife habitat was the winter range for Rocky Mountain elk and white-tailed deer. To offset this loss, 7,000 acres of mitigation lands have been developed and are managed for winter range.

The construction of Dworshak Dam resulted in blocking anadromous steelhead and converting a river habitat to a reservoir. Mitigation for fish losses led to completion of the Dworshak National Fish Hatchery. The hatchery was constructed and is maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers. It is operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Nez Perce Tribe. The Dworshak hatchery is the primary producer of Clearwater B-run steelhead, highly sought by anglers for their large size when returning as adults. After Dworshak Reservoir was filled, kokanee salmon and smallmouth bass were stocked and became self-sustaining. Sterile rainbow trout are stocked annually to provide a put and take fishery that cannot interbreed with native cutthroat present in the tributary streams. The abundance of kokanee salmon and smallmouth bass make it a favored area for sport fisheries. Dworshak reservoir has produced multiple state record smallmouth bass.

About 55 Walla Walla District employees work at the Dworshak project. They serve as electricians, mechanics, a forester, utility workers, heavy equipment operators, park rangers, biologists, environmental resource specialists, administrative staff, engineers and maintenance workers.