Culture, Collaboration, and Power: A Day at Priest Rapids Dam
My mom used to say: “I know you hear me, but are you listening?”
I think about those words often.
As we learn, opinions are formed – and sometimes hardened. We hear the stories, we hear the news, but are we still listening?
I was privileged to represent the Powerful Web team on a tour of Priest Rapids Dam in Grant County Washington along with fifty other public power staff, board members, and elected officials. The purpose of the tour was not just to learn more about the facility (you can do that with a website) but to learn how different groups work together to direct the operation of the facility. Above all, it was a chance to gain a new perspective by seeing, and touching, and listening.
Wanapum Welcome
The day began with a warm welcome from Wanapum Tribal members who explained the rich, interconnected history of their people and the land of the Columbia Valley in which they’ve thrived since time immemorial. This was followed by a prayer. “Whatever is in your heart comes out through your actions… through your hands,” Said Clayton Buck of the Wanapum Tribe. “When you prepare food, you must do so with a spirit of happiness in your heart, as that food will become a part of the body.” We then sat down to a meal of locally sourced venison, potatoes, huckleberries, choke cherries, cous root, and, of course, fresh salmon. After our meal, we were led to the powerhouse, the hatchery, and the heritage center.
Priest Rapids Hydroelectric Facility
It is hard to sense the scale of the massive hydropower turbines. Ten Ferris-wheel-sized machines span a kilometer of the dam’s interior. Each of these modernized 95-megawatt generators sit neatly in a row where the pale green walls and brick red floors evoke a 1950s style. The thrumming turbines function year-round and are constantly being monitored and upgraded to increase efficiency and safety for passing smolt. Each day, the powerhouse supplies enough power for 600,000 homes (roughly the size of Seattle) while its larger twin upstream (Wanapum Dam) produces even more.
Priest Rapids Hatchery
The hatchery complex was bustling with workers (many seasonal) who were carefully, almost lovingly, capturing and studying the large salmon and steelhead swimming up the fish ladders and through the OLAFT (Off-Ladder Adult Fish Trap). To help understand and mitigate the impact of ocean conditions, dams, predation, and harvesting, their crew counts, tags, measures, and documents the fish population as they pass through.
At the nearby spawning station, senior fisheries scientist Todd Pearsons explained the process of combining natural-origin salmon eggs and milt (male salmon’s sperm) with those from hatchery-origin salmon to maintain a healthy, diverse Chinook population. Ultimately, the facility produces over 5 million fertilized eggs annually. Grand County PUD explains this process in more detail.
Wanapum Heritage Center
The Heritage Center shares the rich history, ingenuity, enduring resilience, and cultural beauty of the Wanapum Tribe. Above all, it teaches that these people are still here and still thriving. They work diligently to protect and preserve the land and river for themselves and for future generations. Through strenuous and prudent efforts, they have fostered and maintained relationships with federal, state, and local agencies. The respect, trust, and mutual understanding that results from these relationships allow the Wanapum to actively participate in decision-making processes that affect this unique part of the world. Lela Buck, Director of the Heritage Center, explained: “The treaty didn’t put us here. The government didn’t put us here. Our creator put us here.”
To navigate the complexities of today’s energy landscape, nothing beats firsthand knowledge. It’s an investment in the future – one that pays off in informed decisions and stronger partnerships – as long as we keep listening to each other.
