Industrial History: 1962,2018 603mw Ice Harbor Lock and Dam on the Snake River

More newspaper clippings about the lock are here.

USACE
"The powerhouse has three 90,000-kilowatt units [1962] and three 111,000-kilowatt units [1976]– 603-megawatt total powerhouse capacity. The first of three new, advanced-technology turbine runners designed to improve fish passage was installed and became operational in 2018. The work also includes structural modifications to the turbine draft tube exits, wicket gates and stay vanes to improve hydraulic conditions for fish. Small-scale model testing of the new fixed-blade runner design indicate increased power generation by 3 to 4 percent. During fiscal year 2017, 1.93 billion kilowatt hours of electricity were produced.
"Two fish ladders provide adult fish upstream passage through Ice Harbor Lock and Dam. In 2005, a spillway weir was also installed to improve passage conditions for juvenile salmon downstream outmigration. Modifications to a lamprey fish ladder entrance were made in 2018, and lamprey passage orifices, and installation of metal plating have been made to assist adult lamprey upstream passage. Juvenile fish survival is anticipated to improve further with completed installation new turbine runner installation in unit 2 during 2018."

0:11 video @ 0:00
Make it rain!!!
Brian Skidmore: Are you at full capacity? Or just have to spill a required kcfs?
Andy Michel: Brian Skidmore No where near full capacity. Mostly just wasting water in the name of saving salmon.

Andy Michel posted
Neil Jacobson: Looks like enough room for 1 small boat.
Andy Michel: Neil Jacobson Negative. Small crafts must enter last and leave first when locking through with a tug boat.

Vintage Tri-Cities posted
Ice Harbor Dam, 1967. Who remembers when you were allowed to drive on the dam?
Kathryn Jones Kaser-Nichols: We went through this one in the 1990's once with 57 boats after a holiday weekend. The Tri Cities' yacht clubs sponsored a trip to Lyons Ferry. Going back down stream there was radio communication between 8 big boats and the Lockmaster. Each big boat took a pin, four to a side. Then the smaller ones went slowly in till there were four rows of boats rafted up from side to side. You could walk from one side to the other and party! Not one accident! It was amazing. Lots of people watching from above.
Shane Vacek: I was on top ice harbor 2 or 3 years ago delivering some concrete for a little project they were doing on it. Felt cool driving up on it like vehicles used to be able to do on a regular basis

Andy Michel posted
Dam weather is shaping up.

Edward Figuli posted
Here is another picture from the flight on Saturday, February 3, 2024. This is Safe Harbor Hydro Electric Station. A run of river hydro plant on the Susquehanna River south of Harrisburg. The station supplies electricity to the grid and Amtrak.

3 of 29 construction photos on USACE:

The spillways are rather low because the Tainter gates are so tall. This allows the spillway to be used as a diversion channel while the second part of the dam is built.

Andy Michel posted
Ice Harbor Lock & Dam Construction Photo
Tri-City Herald January 3rd, 1961

Andy Michel posted
Ice Harbor Navigation Lock & Spillway Construction Photos
Tri-City Herald February 24th, 1961

Harold Wentworth posted

Andy Michel posted
Ice Harbor Trash Boom/Collection System
Tri-City Herald March 5th, 1969

David Gulden posted
SHAVERS M/V CASCADES at ICE HARBOR LOCK on the SNAKE RIVER just like JOHN DAY has GAUNTLET GATE she is 675 long with a 100 foot single lift
Adrian Pirani: Start making Lower Mississippi stacks like these!
William Lee Winders: Adrian Pirani noooooooo
David Gulden: William Lee Winders already seen a few like that in the south lol devall towing has a few.
Brody Schwartz: William Lee Winders keeps the exhaust out of the wheelhouse/galley and a lot quieter.
William Lee Winders: Brody Schwartz I know why they do it but my gosh it kills a good looking boat.
[After all, a towing company should worry more about the fans than their crews.]
Miles A. Souders: Spring run off hang on to your seat after the floating wall.

This helps show the height of the lock.

Andy Michel posted two photos with the comment: "I just hate it when my chips get wet."

Rob Jordan: What is the weight of those chips?

Andy Michel: 2,200 Tons (Dry)

USACE-operations
Height: 141' (52m)
Length: 2,822' (555m)
Hydraulic Capacity: 106 kcfs
Spillway Capacity (max): 850 kcfs

Timothy Temple, Aug 2022

1 of 25 photos of other subjects posted by Scott Butner
Order here: https://scottbutnerphotography.squarespace.com/readytohang-wall-art/p/iceharbor-dam-pano
Andy Michel shared
Cool shot from the water.

Andy Michel posted
It’s Clearwater.
[I don't understand the description. It was tagged as Ice Harbor L&D.]

Andy Michel posted
Good morning! Have a great Sunday!!

Andy Michel posted
Russ and a few of his buddies heading through the locks.
Tri-City Herald
August 13th, 1968
Neil Jacobson: Looks like a old Higgens Boat.

Russ Gilliam commented on Andy's post
I bet that was our old LCM.
Andy Michel: Russ Gilliam I think so!!

Andy Michel posted
Measuring our open standpipe piezometer wells today as a part of our monthly dam safety inspection.

bluefish

Construction was authorized by the Rier and Harbor Act of 1945. [USACE] But construction was delayed by years because of concerns about the impact on migratory fish and about the cost.

The fight concerning the fish continues. This is a Dec 2, 2022 update.

LagrandeObserver
"Ice Harbor Dam on the Lower Snake River holds back Lake Sacajawea, a source of irrigation water for 47,000 acres of farmland. A federal judge on Tuesday, Oct. 26, [2022], granted a stay in litigation seeking to save endangered salmon runs on the Columbia and Snake rivers.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers/Contributed Photo"

wawg
A Dec 21, 2022, report of a lobbying boat trip sponsored by the agriculture industry. Laurie Weitkamp, a research fisheries biologist at NOAA said "that many salmon populations are in a downward trend largely due to unfavorably warm ocean conditions."
Concurrently (Oct 1, 2022), NOAA issued a report recommending the removal of the Snake river dams. [nwpb]

I think they do an asymmetric water release to maximize the health of juvenile fish by moving water that is closer to the surface. [keprtv]

TripAdvisor

Digitally Zoomed

In the meantime, the USACE is spending big money to design and install new turbines that are designed to reduce the fish kill and to improve horsepower by 4%. Six photos from USACE-modernizing:

1
Burbank, WA. Ice Harbor Dam personnel installed an advanced technology turbine, the first of its kind, on June 8, 2018. This fixed blade turbine runner was designed by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers personnel and Voith for power efficiency and to optimize the safety of fish navigating through Snake River dams.
Photo by: Brigida I Sanchez

2
The Walla Walla District, in partnership with Voith Hydro Inc., completed assembly and have begun installation of an advanced-designed hydroelectric turbine at Ice Harbor Lock and Dam on Feb. 17. This turbine is the second of 3 new turbines coming to Ice Harbor. These turbines will be safer for fish, reduce maintenance costs and increase power generation efficiency by 3 to 4 percent. Final commissioning is scheduled for the summer of 2022.
Photo by: Matthew Cole

3
Testing is performed on a 1 to 25 scale model of the turbine, constructed specifically for testing purposes. One round of testing is done by the turbine manufacturer, in Ice Harbor’s case, Voith Hydro, who checks to see if the turbine operates well from a power generation standpoint. Next, the model is shipped to Vicksburg Mississippi, where the Engineering Research and Development Center (ERDC), conducts their own round of testing to see how the turbine operates from a fish passage standpoint.
Photo by: hannah mitchell

4
Pacific Northwest National Lab staff developed small autonomous devices filled with sensors called Sensor Fish to measure the physical stressors placed on fish passing through or around dams. These devices measure acceleration, pressure, rotational velocity, and orientation, and were used at Ice Harbor Dam to evaluate the new turbine designs.
Photo by: matthew cole

5
Water flowing downstream at dams produces electricity. As the water passes through the dam’s powerhouse, it falls from the upstream level behind the dam to a lower downstream level. The water is moving with tremendous force and is guided down to the turbine. As it strikes the turbine blades, the water turns the turbine like a propeller. The turning turbine spins coils of wires inside a large generator mounted above it, converting the mechanical energy of falling water into electrical energy. Transmission lines then carry the electricity to homes and businesses.
Photo by: hannah mitchell

6
Ice Harbor Lock and Dam, located on the lower Snake River near Pasco, Washington, was the first of the Lower Snake River Dams to be constructed. The first three of its hydro-turbine units were brought online in 1961, with three additional units coming online in 1976.
Photo by: Jay Anderson

The turbine research and installation cost $92m and achieved a 98.25% survival rate. "“Significant reductions in strike, exposure to shear, turbulence and low pressure zones, coupled with the high direct survival numbers put the turbine passage route at the same level or better than spillway passage” said Corps Hydraulic Engineer, Martin Ahmann, the project Technical Lead." $321m has been awarded to build and install 14 turbines at McNary Dam. [cbbulletin] I never did find a kill rate for the old turbine design.

Andy Michel posted three photos and a video with the comment: "Unit 3 Kaplan oil piping going in today."