Like a spring snake being released from its canned prison, the White Salmon River in Washington State was freed after the 98 year old Condit Dam was dramatically breached with explosives last week.
The detonation, and resulting deluge, was captured on video by Andy Maser who also created a series of timelapse videos, condensing the two hours it took to drain the reservoir into a very satisfying two minute montage. And since we all care about the technical details, Andy’s kit included a Sony FS100, a Sony EX1 capturing to a KiPro hard disk recorder and a Canon 5D for the video portions. While the timelapse sequences were captured with a pair of Canon Rebel T2is and a Canon 7D.
The removal of the Condit Dam is part of a larger ecological effort to increase the water flow along the White Salmon River, which will in turn restore fish populations and other aquatic life that local species of birds and animals rely on. The dam was actually responsible for producing 14 megawatts of electricity for local residents, but the company that owned it decided it was cheaper to just blow it up and source the power from somewhere else, instead of upgrading the facility to facilitate the migration of fish. And probably because it would make for a kick arse video. [White Salmon Restored via National Geographic]
iNiff
Friday, November 4, 2011 at 1:10 PMLooks more destructive then improving anything
Sylver
Friday, November 4, 2011 at 2:49 PMI initially thought so too. It trashed the dam-side of the river, but in the long run, I think that all it just looks horrible now, give it a few years and all the grass and trees and whatnot will move up to the new waterline and the place will look fine again.
Robert
Tuesday, December 6, 2011 at 9:09 AMDimwitted redneck leans against his pickup after setting off a bunch of explosives and destroying all life in a river for many kilometers.
Yep shane it was the tree huggers than forced the company to destroy the dam.
They will buy electricity somewhere else made by burning coal. Good trade off
maddogeco
Friday, November 4, 2011 at 1:32 PMi hope they did that in the dry season. i think iw will recover quicker than you think. all that silk being flushed down stream with kick start all the plants that will grow where the only ones once were
The Saint
Friday, November 4, 2011 at 1:55 PMWhat a bloody mess!
Raddave
Friday, November 4, 2011 at 1:57 PMi believe you mean silt…
maddogeco
Friday, November 4, 2011 at 2:08 PMyep that’s what i meant . fail
Michael
Friday, November 4, 2011 at 2:36 PMWouldn’t doing this slowly save more wildlife, I cant see much surviving that initial torrent?
terrible idea is terrible
Friday, November 4, 2011 at 3:09 PMface palm @ hippie sentiments, I cant imagine many animals would have hung around while guys very LOUDLY drilled holes for the explosives, and anything further downstream would have crapped its pants @ the explosion and ran.
Graham
Friday, November 4, 2011 at 3:40 PMThats providing they were able to run anywhere, there may have been sheer sides downstream for all we know. Outrunning that torrent would have been a difficult task, hell even people arent smart enough to get out of the way of flash floods sometimes, let alone burst dams. I also have no idea why they didnt drain the dam slowly first, seems that mudslide at the edges of the river was incredibly dangerous and with people standing too close for comfort.
MDG
Friday, November 4, 2011 at 6:31 PMPeoples are a bit stupid….
The emptying of the dam didn’t cause any more flooding than a spring snowmelt would, or a downpour upstream…
As someone above commented, liberating all of that silt for the downstream FLOODPLAINS (called that for a reason) to utilise, is probably the best thing that has happened to the ecology of the area in generations.
The fished in the ponds downstream wil survive Just fine in the longer term…Some may die in the turbid flood, but then others will have food… That’s the circle of Life in nature… Let it be..
Shane
Monday, November 7, 2011 at 8:31 AMDimwitted redneck leans against his pickup after setting off a bunch of explosives and destroying all life in a river for many kilometers.
“Yehp son, it’s just the cycle of nature”
Kendal
Friday, November 4, 2011 at 10:43 PMOne less place for Siri to suggest you dump a body. Shame.
Charles
Saturday, November 5, 2011 at 10:33 AMWell… really it’s just expanding the user base. By extending the range of the river, it means that more and more people from different areas can utilise the body-dumping properties of deep bodies of water. We at the White Salmon River council care about crime – organised and disorganised.
Patrick
Saturday, November 5, 2011 at 7:03 AMThe dam looked very silted up anyway, so it was probably comming to the end of it’s life.
R Lunday
Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 11:12 AMI Bet if someone dug a ditch in the middle of nowhere there would be someone worried about the worms that might be injured or have thier home displaced.. The lake was past it’s usfulness and gettting the silt out of it was the best way to reclimate the land for other uses such as wildlife and humans. Everyday some wild animals get ran over on highways while crossing them and I dought any of these crybabies walk so as not to be part of the mass killing of them. Grow up
Greg
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 5:57 PMIt sure ruined my fishing holes below the dam