Here's My Dam Trip

No really, I took a Dam trip on the Willamette river last week with work. I have been mainly working on the Comumbia river so going out to see all the projects on the Willamette was very interesting. We visited about 3 projects a day and were out and about for 4 days. Lots of driving in the huge 12 person van but it was worth it. So, here are a few of the pictures I snagged below and on top of some of the projects.

So here on the top is a look at the fish ladder at Foster. We didn't see any fish going up, but there were quite a few in the holding area at the top of it. They were all trying to jump their way out, but they were not due for pickup till the next day. On the bottom is a picture from the top of Foster. It was really clear and you can get a good view of some of the Cascades back there.

Here we are at Green Peter. The top picture is obviously the view from the top while the bottom shot is a tour if the projects guts. We started at the top and went down I don't know how many stairs to the base of the project. It was pretty cold, wet, and moldy down there. We got a good look at some of the insides of a dam and all the monitors set up to keep track of the movements below and around the dam. It was pretty weird to be down there knowing a huge wall of water was just to the left of you.

Last one I guess. These shots are on top of Cougar Dam. The structure on the left is probably the most interesting thing I saw the whole week. Just over the past few years they built this huge tower to regulate the temperature of the water at the tail of the dam. It has 3 massive sets of gates that can be raised and lowered in order to pull water from any level in the pool. Pre-build, the fish were migrating about 2 months late and it was discovered that the natural temperature rise was offset by about that amount of time because of the dam. So, they put this monster in there in order to bring the temps back to pre-dam form. Low and behold, the first year the fish migrated in mass right when they were supposed to. It worked and is still working like a champ. The other picture is just a group shot on top of Cougar.

These were just a few of the places I got to explore over the week. I learned a lot, talked face to face with the folks we talk with on the phone, and saw some amazing country south and east of Portland. Next year it will be off to the Columbia projects. That one will take me all the way into Canada, Idaho, Montana, Washington, and of course, Oregon. Lots of drive time on that one. It should be great though.



- Paul