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On April 25^th, the House Appropriations Committee passed the Fiscal Year 2013 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, which includes language authored by Congressman Doc Hastings to ensure that taxpayers are not responsible for the costs associated with the mitigation of the removal of Condit Dam. 

“Before it was removed in October of last year, Condit Dam served two rural counties in Central Washington for nearly a century”, said Hastings, “PacifiCorp,  a private company, chose to remove the dam, and they should be held financially responsible for mitigating the impact of this removal – whether it be erosion of the banks of what used to be Northwestern Lake or the silt that has migrated down the White Salmon River.”

Condit Dam was a privately owned and operated hydropower-producing dam located in south-central Washington state.  It was constructed in 1913 on the White Salmon River, a tributary of the Columbia River.  Since 1947, Condit Dam has been owned and operated by PacifiCorp, and has held a license with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. 

“Although PacifiCorp moved forward with their removal of Condit Dam, I will continue to oppose efforts by those with an agenda to tear out federally-owned or licensed hydropower dams.  The Northwest has been a leader in clean, renewable hydropower and I will work to see that it continues to be for many years.”

Last year, Hastings authored a provision, which was signed into law that prevented federal funding from being used to tear out Condit Dam or to mitigate the removal of the dam in Fiscal Year 2012.  The language that was supported by the Appropriations Committee last week would continue this prohibition through Fiscal Year 2013.