Tuesday, March 7, 2023

1973 400mw Dworshak Dam on Clearwater River near Ahsahka, ID

(Satellite)

USACE
"Dworshak Dam has one 220-megawatt turbine unit that is the largest hydroelectric generator in the USACE inventory. The other two units are 90-megawatt, for a total project generating capacity of 400 megawatts."
At 717', it is the third tallest dam in the US. The length is 3,287 with a spillway capacity of 180 kcfs and a hydraulic capacity of 10.5 kcfs.
Because it is too tall for a fish ladder, the USACE constructed a fish hatchery just below the dam.
"Dworshak is operated to benefit salmon and steelhead in the Snake River by releasing cool water from the reservoir during the warm summer months. Water is drawn from various depths in the reservoir to adjust the temperature, which typically ranges from 46°–48°F.
"Wildlife mitigation lands are managed to offset habitat losses that occurred when the reservoir filled. About 7,000 acres are managed specifically for habitat for the Rocky Mountain elk."

WorldAtlas-top7 (source).
Dworshak Dam Concrete Gravity North Fork Clearwater River Idaho.
It has "the tallest non-curved concrete face in the Western Hemisphere."

USACE via cbr 
The dam was designed for six bays, but units 4-6 were deauthorized in the 1990s.
via WorldAtlas-dam
"Supporters of the Dam would cite the horrific 1948 flooding of the Clearwater River as the main reason the Dam was needed....The Dworshak Dam was named after Senator Henry Dworshak of Idaho, who was crucial in gaining approval for the project."

USACE-Feb 2, 2023 (source)
"The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-Dworshak Project is announcing that Dent Acres Campground will be closed for camping between August 1 and September 30, 2023, due to a repaving project."

"Dworshak Dam Project 81 (Batch plant)", Dworshak Dam Collection, Digital Initiatives, University of Idaho Library via uidaho, 1 of 215 photos
Photo taken May 1968. 
"Shows top of the batch plant where they mixed the concrete. Note on reverse reads 'Note one of the cable towers at the extreme downstream end of the track. This would indicate that they were placing concrete on the very downstream edge of the dam. Also seen is some of the crushed rock used for concrete -- the long tubes carries fly ash, a cement ingredient from Chicago that sets the concrete and makes it harder.'"
[I've been wondering where we are going to get fly ash for concrete after they close all of the coal-fired power plants.]

"Dworshak Dam Project 100 (dam base)", Dworshak Dam Collection, Digital Initiatives, University of Idaho Library via uidaho, 1 of 215 photos
1969 photo looking upstream

budowle
"Dworshak barrage is the fourth largest dam in the US and 25 in the world. It is also the highest dam with a straight axis in the northern hemisphere."

It made another "top 7" list of dams.
TataAndHoward
 "Building the highest straight axis gravity dam in the Western Hemisphere, on a river with a mean flow of 5,000 cubic feet per second, at a cost of $312 million, in the name of flood-control, is the second-funniest joke in Idaho. The funniest joke is inside the visitor center: a government sign entreats, ‘…help protect this delicate environment for future generations.’ The North Fork of the Clearwater was an exceptional river with a preeminent run of steelhead trout, and the drainage contained thousands of elk and white-tail deer. The Army Corps of Engineers proceeded to destroy the river, habitat, and fish; then acquired 5,000 acres for elk management and spent $21 million to build the largest steelhead hatchery in the world, maintaining at a cost of $1 million dollars a year what nature had provided for nothing."
[The low flow of 5 kcfs is probably why they didn't build a powerhouse for the remaining three generator bays.]

nwesi

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