An Associated Press report in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer indicates that contractors used explosives to lower the height of Glines Canyon Dam to about 50 feet.
The dam stood more than 200 feet high before removal operations began. It was built in 1927 and formed Lake Mills. Water has been flowing over the top of the dam for several days.
Glines Canyon Dam will be the second dam on the Olympic Peninsula river to be taken down. Elwha Dam was removed in March 2012.
Once both dams are gone, the Elwha River will flow from the Olympic mountains to the sea in the Strait of San Juan de Fuca.
Their removal is expected to aid the recovery of a Pacific salmon run that has declined from about 400,000 individuals per year in the Elwha River watershed to about 4,000. The installation of Elwha and Glines Canyon dams cost the anadromous fish native to the watershed more than 90 percent of their habitat.
The law authorizing the U.S. government to acquire both dams, and to take them out of the Elwha River and Olympic National Park, was enacted in 1992.
The ongoing effort is the largest dam removal project in U.S. history.
Map of Elwha River courtesy Wikimedia.
Photo of Glines Canyon Dam prior to commencement of removal work courtesy Wikimedia.
