Caught On Camera: Dam Demolished

Crews have breached Condit Dam in Washington's south Cascades. 

Water poured from a hole in the nearly century-old hydropower dam Wednesday (10/26) after crews used explosives to blast through concrete in the base of the dam.  

The more than 12-story dam on the White Salmon River is the second-tallest dam to be demolished in U.S. history.

Its owner, Portland, Ore.-based utility PacifiCorp, elected to remove the dam rather than pay to install fish passage structures that would have been required for relicensing.   

The White Salmon River winds from its headwaters on the slopes of Mount Adams through steep, forested canyons to its confluence with the Columbia River, the largest river in the Pacific Northwest.