The Chief Joseph Dam is a concrete
gravity dam
A gravity dam is a dam constructed from concrete or stone masonry and designed to hold back water by using only the weight of the material and its resistance against the foundation. Gravity dams are designed so that each section of the dam is ...
on the
Columbia River
The Columbia River (Upper Chinook language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...
, upriver from
Bridgeport, Washington. The dam is upriver from the mouth of the Columbia at
Astoria, Oregon
Astoria is a Port, port city in and the county seat of Clatsop County, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1811, Astoria is the oldest city in the state and was the first permanent American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. The county is the ...
. It is operated by the
USACE
The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: #The Engineer Regiment, Engineer Regiment, military constr ...
Chief Joseph Dam Project Office and the electricity is marketed by the
Bonneville Power Administration
The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) is an American federal agency operating in the Pacific Northwest. BPA was created by an act of United States Congress, Congress in 1937 to market electric power from the Bonneville Dam located on the Col ...
.
History
The dam was authorized as Foster Creek Dam and Powerhouse for power generation and irrigation by the ''River and Harbor Act of 1946''. The ''River and Harbor Act of 1948'' renamed the project
Chief Joseph
''Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt'' (or ''hinmatóowyalahtq̓it'' in Americanist orthography; March 3, 1840 – September 21, 1904), popularly known as Chief Joseph, Young Joseph, or Joseph the Younger, was a leader of the wal-lam-wat-kain (Wallowa) ...
Dam in honor of the
Nez Perce
The Nez Perce (; autonym in Nez Perce language: , meaning 'we, the people') are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who still live on a fraction of the lands on the southeastern Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest. This region h ...
chief who spent his last years in exile on the
Colville Indian Reservation
The Colville Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation located in Washington (state), Washington state, U.S. It is inhabited and managed by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, which are List of federally recognized tribes in ...
. Because of its lack of
fish ladders, Chief Joseph Dam completely blocks salmon migration to the upper Columbia River system.
Construction began in 1950, with the main dam and intake structure completed in 1955. Installation of the initial generating units was started in 1958 and completed in 1961. Ten additional turbines were installed between 1973 and 1979, and the dam and lake were raised , boosting the capacity to , making Chief Joseph Dam the second largest hydroelectric power producer in the United States.
Chief Joseph Dam
US Army Corps of Engineers
Type
Chief Joseph Dam is a run-of-the-river dam which means the lake behind the dam is not able to store large amounts of water. Water flowing to Chief Joseph Dam from Grand Coulee Dam
Grand Coulee Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation water. Constructed between 1933 and 1942, Grand Coulee originally had two powerhous ...
must be passed on to Wells Dam at approximately the same rate. With 27 main generators in the powerhouse, it has the hydraulic capacity of .
In the event more water flows to Chief Joseph Dam than could be used for power generation, the spillway gates would be opened to pass the excess water. With an average annual flow rate of , the Columbia River seldom exceeds the powerplant's capability to pass water, and spilling of water is infrequent at Chief Joseph Dam.
Reservoir
The reservoir
A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation.
Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...
behind the dam is named Rufus Woods Lake, and runs up the river channel. Bridgeport State Park, on the lake, is adjacent to the dam.
See also
* Hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River
* List of power stations in Washington
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
* List of dams in the Columbia River watershed
* List of largest hydroelectric power stations in the United States
References
External links
Chief Joseph Dam - U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
(Official site)
*
{{Authority control
Dams on the Columbia River
Dams in Washington (state)
Buildings and structures in Douglas County, Washington
Hydroelectric power plants in Washington (state)
Buildings and structures in Okanogan County, Washington
Run-of-the-river power stations
United States Army Corps of Engineers dams
Dams completed in 1955
Energy infrastructure completed in 1958
Energy infrastructure completed in 1973
Energy infrastructure completed in 1979
Gravity dams
1979 establishments in Washington (state)
1955 establishments in Washington (state)