Cowlitz Falls Dam is a 70
megawatt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...
hydroelectric
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...
dam in
Lewis County, Washington
Lewis County is a county in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 82,149. The county seat is Chehalis, and its largest city is Centralia. Lewis County comprises the Centralia, WA Micropolitan Stat ...
. It was constructed in the early 1990s and completed in 1994. The dam is high and wide.
History
A village of the
Cowlitz people
The term Cowlitz people covers two culturally and linguistically distinct indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest; the Lower Cowlitz or Cowlitz proper, and the Upper Cowlitz / Cowlitz Klickitat or Taitnapam. Lower Cowlitz refers to a southwe ...
, known as Koapk, existed at the Cowlitz Falls Dam site. The tribe, possibly Upper Cowlitz, were known as the k’wolama.
Geography
The dam's reservoir, Lake Scanewa, is located at the confluence of the
Cowlitz River
The Cowlitz River is a river in the state of Washington in the United States, a tributary of the Columbia River. Its tributaries drain a large region including the slopes of Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, and Mount St. Helens.
The Cowlitz has a ...
and
Cispus River
The Cispus River is about long and flows into the Cowlitz River at Lake Scanewa in the Cascade Range of Washington. Its tributaries drain most of south-central and southeastern Lewis County, extreme northeast Skamania County, and some of w ...
downstream of
Randle, Washington
Randle is a small town in eastern Lewis County, Washington, United States. Randle is located on U.S. Route 12 and is notable as the northeastern access point to the Mount St. Helens Windy Ridge viewpoint, by way of forest service roads that cut ...
with a surface area of about . The lake is accessible by way of the Cowlitz Falls Park, a day use area situated near the junction with the Cispus River.
Power plant
The Cowlitz Falls Project impounds the
Cowlitz River
The Cowlitz River is a river in the state of Washington in the United States, a tributary of the Columbia River. Its tributaries drain a large region including the slopes of Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, and Mount St. Helens.
The Cowlitz has a ...
and produces on average 260 gigawatt hours annually for the local public utility, the Lewis County
Public Utility District
A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...
, or about one-third of its annual electrical needs.
The facility was developed jointly with 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 ...
, and the BPA bears the direct cost of operating and maintaining the dam.
See also
*
List of dams in the Columbia River watershed
There are more than 60 dams in the Columbia River watershed in the United States and Canada. Tributaries of the Columbia River and their dammed tributaries, as well as the main stem itself, each have their own list below. The dams are listed i ...
References
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Dams in Washington (state)
Reservoirs in Washington (state)
United States local public utility dams
Hydroelectric power plants in Washington (state)
Dams completed in 1994
Energy infrastructure completed in 1994