Ririe Dam | |
---|---|
Official name | Ririe Dam |
Location | Upper Snake River Basin, Bonneville County, Idaho, USA |
Coordinates | 43°34′54″N111°44′30″W / 43.58167°N 111.74167°W |
Construction began | January 1970 |
Opening date | February 1978 [1] |
Operator(s) | Bonneville County Parks & Recreation Department |
Dam and spillways | |
Impounds | Willow Creek |
Height | 77.11 meters |
Length | 326.14 meters |
Width (base) | 15 meters |
Reservoir | |
Creates | Ririe Reservoir |
Total capacity | 124,000 megaliters |
Surface area | 6.1 km2 |
Normal elevation | 5,125 ft (1,562 m) [2] |
The Ririe Reservoir is a reservoir located near Ririe, Idaho. It allows for irrigation, flood control, and provides recreational opportunities.
In 1972 the Ririe Dam, built on Willow Creek by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, was the site of the first practical application of steel fibrous shotcrete, which was used to build a tunnel adit. [3] The dam's total capacity is more than 100,000 acre-feet of water. On October 14, 1976, the Corps of Engineers formally transferred control of the dam to the United States Bureau of Reclamation. [4]
The area surrounding the dam is hilly shrub-steppe d and features the sagebrush and bunch grass typical of the area. The reservoir itself contains rainbow trout, kokanee salmon, cutthroat trout, smallmouth bass, and yellow perch.
If the Ririe Dam failed catastrophically, either from a natural disaster or a human initiated event, it would reach the first population center, the City of Ucon, in 108 minutes; it would reach the City of Idaho Falls, the major population center of Bonneville County, in 187 minutes. The Dam is not staffed 24 hours a day and therefore, it is anticipated that there would be at least a fifteen (15) minute lag between event initiation and the commencement of the notification to residents. [5]
Ririe is a city in Bonneville and Jefferson counties in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Idaho. It is part of the Idaho Falls metropolitan area. The population was 656 at the time of the 2010 census.
Bonneville Lock and Dam consists of several run-of-the-river dam structures that together complete a span of the Columbia River between the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington at River Mile 146.1. The dam is located 40 miles (64 km) east of Portland, Oregon, in the Columbia River Gorge. The primary functions of Bonneville Lock and Dam are electrical power generation and river navigation. The dam was built and is managed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. At the time of its construction in the 1930s it was the largest water impoundment project of its type in the nation, able to withstand flooding on an unprecedented scale. Electrical power generated at Bonneville is distributed by the Bonneville Power Administration. Bonneville Lock and Dam is named for Army Capt. Benjamin Bonneville, an early explorer credited with charting much of the Oregon Trail. The Bonneville Dam Historic District was designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1987.
The Teton Dam was an earthen dam in the western United States, on the Teton River in eastern Idaho. It was built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, one of eight federal agencies authorized to construct dams. Located between Fremont and Madison counties, it suffered a catastrophic failure on June 5, 1976, as it was filling for the first time.
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Strawberry Reservoir is a large reservoir in the U.S. state of Utah. It is Utah's most popular fishery, receiving over 1.5 million angling hours annually and is part of the Blue Ribbon Fisheries program. Game fish in the reservoir include sterilized rainbow trout, bear lake cutthroat trout, kokanee salmon and crayfish. It is located 23 miles (37 km) southeast of Heber, Utah on U.S. Route 40. The reservoir is situated in Strawberry Valley. This valley is normally part of the Colorado River drainage. The dam was constructed to divert water into Utah Valley.
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Dam removal is the process of demolishing a dam, returning water flow to the river. Arguments for dam removal consider whether their negative effects outweigh their benefits. The benefits of dams include hydropower production, flood control, irrigation, and navigation. Negative effects of dams include environmental degradation, such as reduced primary productivity, loss of biodiversity, and declines in native species; some negative effects worsen as dams age, like structural weakness, reduced safety, sediment accumulation, and high maintenance expense. The rate of dam removals in the United States has increased over time, in part driven by dam age. As of 1996, 5,000 large dams around the world were more than 50 years old. In 2020, 85% percent of dams in the United States are more than 50 years old. In the United States roughly 900 dams were removed between 1990 and 2015, and by 2015, the rate was 50 to 60 per year. France and Canada have also completed significant removal projects. Japan's first removal, of the Arase Dam on the Kuma River, began in 2012 and was completed in 2017. A number of major dam removal projects have been motivated by environmental goals, particularly restoration of river habitat, native fish, and unique geomorphological features. For example, fish restoration motivated the Elwha Ecosystem Restoration and the dam removal on the river Allier, while recovery of both native fish and of travertine deposition motivated the restoration of Fossil Creek.
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Willow Creek is a 84-mile (135 km) long tributary of the Snake River in the U.S. state of Idaho. Beginning at an elevation of 6,568 feet (2,002 m) east of the Blackfoot Mountains in southeastern Bingham County, it flows generally north into Bonneville County and past Bone. South of the town of Ririe, the creek is impounded by Ririe Dam, forming Ririe Reservoir. It then turns southwest, passing between Iona and Ucon, before bifurcating into two distributaries, North Fork Willow Creek and South Fork Willow Creek, at an elevation of 4,777 feet (1,456 m). Both forks reach the Snake River north of Idaho Falls.