News Release
| Release Number: | 98-055 |
| Dated: | 7/9/1998 |
| Contact: | Public Affairs Office, 503-808-4510 |
Portland, Ore. -- - The public is invited to join the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Bonneville Lock and Dam on the Columbia River 40 miles east of Portland on July 11, 1998, for "A Day of Celebration."
The men and women of the Corps are celebrating 60 years of service to the United States and the Northwest, and rededicating themselves and the Bonneville project to continued service in the 21st century. Bonneville Lock and Dam officially began operation on July 9, 1938. Bonneville Dam 60th Anniversary Celebration Schedule of Events, Times and Locations July 11, 1998 10 am-5 pm Tour Steam Sternwheeler Portland -Bradford Island Sternwheeler Dock Exhibits and historic photographs - Administration Bldg. Antique cars and boats - Robins Island Military equipment display & food booths -Bradford Island Visitor Center parking area Films -Bradford Island Visitor Center 1-4 pm Free Concert - Swingline Cubs -Bradford Island Visitor Center 2-3 pm Free Concert-Whiskey Flats-Robins Island picnic shelter 2:30-3 pm Antique plane fly-over - Planes from the 20's, 30's, 40's from Pearson's Airpark, Vancouver, and Washougal-Camas Airpark 4 pm Judging and Awards of Antique Cars -Robins Island picnic shelter 12:30 & 4 pm Photographs taken of retired and former Bonneville employees - Bradford Island Visitor Center Bring the family and picnic at Bonneville until 8 p.m.
In the early 1930s, there were several privately owned dams in the Northwest, one on the Columbia River. For the most part, the region's hydroelectric power potential was untapped. Federal dams had been considered and studied for 20 years. There was a 10-dam plan for the Columbia, but nothing was authorized. Power for the Northwest was the dream of those who viewed it as the key to economic benefit and growth.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was such a visionary. In 1932, Roosevelt promised: "The next hydroelectric development to be undertaken by the federal government must be on the Columbia River." True to his word, Bonneville was authorized in 1933, at the height of the Great Depression. The $20 million targeted for construction was like manna from heaven for thousands of people who desperately needed jobs. Construction began in early 1934.
President Roosevelt dedicated the project on Sept. 28, 1937. He declared a policy of "widest use" for the electricity produced by Bonneville Dam, adding, "Transmission of electricity is making such scientific strides today that we can well visualize a date, not far distant, when every community in this great area will be wholly electrified."
A series of successes led up to the official July 9 opening. Bonneville's first two generators began producing power in March 1938 through one transmission line from the dam to a Vancouver substation. The first ship moved through the lock in June 1938. Facilities for adult and juvenile fish were operating when the project's generators began producing power.
Bonneville has been a vital part of Northwest history ever since. Its power was essential to the nation during World War II. Although some called Bonneville the "Dam of Doubt," and said there would never be a need for all the power it could produce, the original two generators grew to 10 by 1943. Working at capacity, they supplied vital power for shipyards and aluminum plants during the War. Barges carried essential commodities through the Bonneville Lock, so in that way, too, the "Dam of Doubt" was serving the nation well.
Power demands continued to grow after the war. A 1947 news article states, the Northwest "is a great integrated power plant - one in which all sources, public and private had pooled their energy..." A reporter wrote, "...in the space of a decade the Northwest's demand for power is pushing so close to supply that power men spend an occasional sleepless night..." Power needs grew as war plants reopened on a peacetime basis and rural and domestic customer usage exploded. "Today," the writer continued, "power shortage is more than a distant specter."
A 10-year retrospective detailing hydroelectric development since 1937 stated, "...the big turbines are spinning as fast as the Columbia will push them, the Northwest is using all the power their generators produce and crying for more."
By 1967, eight dams were completed, two others near completion on the Columbia from Bonneville Dam east of Portland, Ore., to Grand Coulee, 151 miles from the Canadian border in Washington state. Still, more power was needed. With few good sites left, there were two answers: install more generators whenever possible, and build more powerhouses at existing dams. The second powerhouse at Bonneville began producing power in 1981.
The navigation lock, too, was serving the nation. Today there are eight locks on the 465-mile-long navigation channel from the Pacific Ocean inland to Lewiston, Idaho. When the original lock was put in service at Bonneville, it was the largest of its type in the world. It could hold two barges and a tugboat at one time. Other locks built later along the Columbia-Snake system could handle five-barge tows. When the new, larger navigation lock opened in 1993, a bottleneck was removed. Traffic could again move up and down the river without delay. Nearly 11 million tons of commodities went through the lock in 1997.
The Bonneville project was placed on the National Register of Historic places as an historic district in June 1986. The entire 97-acre district, including the administration building, auditorium, spillway dam, powerhouse, navigation lock, and fish hatchery and landscaping, is designated as a National Historic Landmark.
Today Bonneville Dam's first and second powerhouses produce enough electricity to supply the power needs of nearly 500,000 homes for a year. In 1997, Bonneville produced more than $100 million worth of energy. Sixty-year-old turbines in the first powerhouse are being replaced with a new design called a Minimum Gap Runner turbine that research indicates will be safer for juvenile fish using the turbine passage system at the dams, and also a more efficient power producer.
Dams along the river also have other benefits. Thousands of people use the calmed river for fishing, boating, and windsurfing. Farms and ranches flourish using irrigation water, and hatcheries and small communities depend on the river for their water supplies. Bonneville Dam is not a flood damage reduction project, but the regulation afforded by projects designed for flood damage reduction, such as John Day Dam, makes safety so accepted that few remember the pre-dam flooding along the river system.
Today's climate has changed, however. Environmental concerns clamor for solutions. Despite the enormous benefits to the region and the economy, there is a downside to the dams: the region's cultural icon, the anadromous salmon, has been put on the endangered species list. Fingers are pointed at the dams, and the slackwater pools they create. Salmon runs, however, began to plummet in the late 1800's, long before the dams.
In 1888, the Corps of Engineers reported to Congress "an enormous reduction in the numbers of spawning fish" and "the threat of overfishing to continued runs." Fishwheels and gillnets worked too well for the good of the runs. Harvest outstripped production. The first fish hatchery was built in Oregon in 1877 to supplement the wild runs. The hatchery at Bonneville Dam was constructed in 1909.
While threats to the species predate the dams, and while there are other threats today - habitat degradation, ocean conditions, hatcheries and harvest among them - the river migration through the dams is a significant problem for the fish and does kill a percentage of them.
As the 60th anniversary of the first power production at Bonneville Dam is celebrated, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, constructors and operators of eight federal dams along the Columbia-Snake River system, is working with the region to restore those fish runs.
Many actions are underway to improve fish passage survival through the Corps' Columbia and Snake River dams. The Corps continues to work with its regional partners - government, tribal, public and private - to preserve the valuable fish runs on the Columbia and Snake rivers.