Stop this dam project before it gets going

 

I rarely post topics like this, but this one I can’t let pass unannounced.

I was recently contacted by a friend who I went to high school with. She wrote me to let me know that she recently gave up a good-paying job in LA to move back to the Pacific Northwet for the sole purpose of fighting a dam proposal on her favorite river, the Skykomish, on which she learned to fly fish.

The lower Skykomish is only 8 miles from where I live and I’ve fished it many times for steelhead, having even been successful on one occasion. I also caught a bull trout/Dolly Varden once, so I guess that’s two successes. But I digress…

The Snohmish County PUD has filed for a preliminary permit to build a small hydroelectric dam on an upper stretch of the Skykomish. It’s just insane to even be thinking about adding dams in this day and age where there is widespread opposition to any structures that block fish passage and flowing water. This dam would produce an insignificant about of hydro power but would damage a river that is only one of 4 rivers designated as Wild and Scenic Rivers by the  Washington state legislature.

Please take a moment to visit the website for Save the Skykomish and sign the petition.

This damn idea is bad and needs to be stopped.

Thanks for your help.

11 Comments

  1. Derek Young

    For all of those reasons, it’s a bad idea. Signing the petition. Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Kirk.

  2. Seth

    Signed – thanks for letting us know.

  3. Brent Daley

    I’m with you on this. There is already too much concrete scaring the landscape. In this day and age dams should be a thing of the past, the very, very last resort. There are too many other alternative sources for energy then to demolish more of our environment.

    • Kirk Werner

      Amen, Brent. Thanks for stopping by to comment.

  4. Wade Wright

    I have never been up that way. Reading all the comments on the petition tells me I may want to go see it one of these days. Petition signed.

    • Kirk Werner

      Thanks, Wade. I’ve never fished the upper river either, but I will be this summer.

  5. chuck

    everywhere else in America the trend is dam removal. What’s up with Washington?

    • Kirk Werner

      Actually, we here in Washington tore down the Elwha and are in the process of removing the Glines Canyon dam, both on the Elwha River. So we’re headed in the right direction, which makes this proposed project all the more absurd.

  6. Ed

    Done. It just doesn’t make sense to ruin such beauty.

    • Kirk Werner

      I would tend to agree, Ed. Thanks!

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