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Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020

Has a major Washington state dam removal project delivered the expected benefits?

Claire Zimmerman, Gigafact Foundry
no

Anticipated benefits from a $325 million project to remove two dams on the Elwha River on Washington's Olympic Peninsula have yet to materialize. The project, the largest such effort in the U.S. to date, was completed in 2014.

The dam removals released sediments that caused a general habitat degradation. With harsh environmental changes, fish and insect populations are less diverse than expected. Chinook salmon and steelhead populations have not returned in the levels forecast. Benefits from increased recreation and tourism in the area has yet to materialize.

The original analysis of the project in 1995 understated or missed some significant factors. "Contingent benefits"–projected values from landscape preservation and other non-economic factors–remain the major justification for what was a politically popular project, a 2019 review concluded.

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