Scripps-McClatchy Western Service
WASHINGTON — Despite concerns from the Bush administration, the effort to remove two dams on the Olympic Peninsula’s Elwha River would receive almost $26 million in funding under a bill approved Thursday by the House Appropriations interior subcommittee.
Overall, the $18.9 billion measure would provide an additional $95 million in the next fiscal year for projects, programs and land acquisition in Washington state. Included in the measure was $1 million for additional land purchases to expand the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, an additional $11.3 million for continued work on improving forest habitat, $9.2 million to assist economically distressed timber communities and $4 million to study overhauling the state’s salmon hatchery program.
"This is a good bill from our state’s perspective," said Rep. Norm Dicks, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee. "It keeps the Elwha moving forward."
Under the current plan, the first of the two dams on the Elwha River could be removed in 2004 and restoration work on the river, which flows out of the Olympic National Park, could begin to help restore what was once one of the healthiest salmon runs in the region.
The $26 million in the bill would be used to help build a new water system for the city of Port Angeles, which draws its water from the Elwha.
Dicks said the Bush administration had taken a close look at any projects with large price tags, such as the Elwha project, and also had questions about dam removals that had been championed by Bruce Babbitt, Clinton’s interior secretary.
Dicks said he raised the Elwha issue in two conversations with Interior Secretary Gale Norton.
"There were serious questions about whether the administration would support it," Dicks said. "This was a critical first step in getting their support."
Left intact in the bill was the existing moratorium on oil and gas drilling on the outer continental shelf, including off the coast of Washington and Oregon. The Bush administration, in its national energy strategy, suggested the Interior Department take a look at lifting the ban.
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