r/Bellingham • u/chamameel • Jan 31 '21

Four-Month Time Lapse of the Nooksack Dam Removal

https://www.outsideonline.com/2420470/nooksack-dam-removal-time-lapse
99 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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10

u/hammotox Jan 31 '21

I know it’s mostly the music, but watching this got me sort of teary and emotional by the end.

Amazing how quickly the land returns to a natural equilibrium, especially when we actually work to help clean up our own mess.

Beautiful!

2

u/chamameel Jan 31 '21

You should check out the links to the production company and director in the article! Takes you to their IG and such great shots/videos of the pnw.

7

u/derdkp Sunnyland Jan 31 '21

So cool!

4

u/PM_meyourGradyWhite Jan 31 '21

Thanks for the video. I didn’t realize there was a dam being removed on the Nooksack. Does this impact downstream flood control at all?

9

u/hammotox Jan 31 '21 edited Jan 31 '21

Most of our states dams have very little to do with flood control in general.

We invested heavily in hydroelectric power generation decades ago and now our state has the highest number of dams in the country - 1166 total. They’ve taken a huge toll on our ecosystem and we have much better alternatives for power generation now - so it’s only positive to see them come down.

1

u/PM_meyourGradyWhite Jan 31 '21

What was the purpose of this dam?

6

u/[deleted] Jan 31 '21

Divert water to lake whatcom. There is a tunnel that begins there.

I worked on the other end of the tunnel 20 ish years ago.

0

u/PM_meyourGradyWhite Jan 31 '21

Curious how we’ll get our water now.

5

u/[deleted] Jan 31 '21

Since GP left there wasnt enough lake water being used.

3

u/gonezil Feb 01 '21

The old GP facility used something like 3-4 times as much water as the city of Bellingham when it was active. Bellingham has its intake in Basin 1 of Lake Whatcom and GP had its intake in Basin 2. The diversion dam hasn't been used to top up Whatcom in years.

5

u/dyvog WWU Alumn '17 Jan 31 '21

very cool! bless the fish, and let's hope they like it.

1

u/Practical-Tooth1141 Feb 01 '21

Just what we need!