Lessons Learned from Sediment Transport Model Predictions and Long-Term Postremoval Monitoring: Marmot Dam Removal Project on the Sandy River in Oregon
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 140, Issue 9
Abstract
The 14-m-tall Marmot Dam was removed during the summer of 2007, and the cofferdam protecting the working area was breached during a storm on October 19, 2007, allowing approximately of reservoir deposit to be eroded freely and released downstream to the Sandy River. Prior to the Marmot Dam removal, sediment transport models were developed to predict the transport dynamics of both gravel and sand, providing key pieces of information for stakeholders and regulatory agencies to select the most appropriate dam removal alternative. A monitoring program was implemented following dam removal that was designed to examine model predictions and assess when potential fish passage issues related to dam removal were no longer of concern. Comparisons of model predictions with field observations indicate that the model successfully predicted the erosion of the impoundment deposit, the deposition of sediment in a short reach downstream of the dam, and the lack of deposition in the majority of the Sandy River. The model overpredicted sediment deposition in a reach 7 to 12 km downstream of the dam. Further examinations indicated that the overpredicted sediment deposition may be attributed to underestimating the gravel particle abrasion coefficient during initial modeling. Comparisons also indicated that the model significantly underpredicted the suspended sediment concentration during the first 10 h immediately following cofferdam breaching but correctly predicted the minimal increase in suspended sediment concentration thereafter.
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Acknowledgments
Primary funding for this project was provided by Portland General Electric Company (PGE). Bureau of Reclamation and the National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics (NCED) located at St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, University of Minnesota, provided additional financial support. We thank the technical and logistic support from PGE staff, John Esler, David Heintzman, Doug Cramer, and Jeff Danielson, just to name a few, and support from the members of Bull Run Decommissioning Work Group. Stillwater Sciences staff Rafael Real de Asua provided all the geographic information system (GIS) support and produced several of the figures presented in this paper; Ian Pryor provided valuable input during the course of the project; and Karley Rodriguez and Sapna Khandwala helped to improve the quality of all the figures. We thank Jon Major and Bruce McCammon for providing photo images, and Jon Major for providing suspended sediment sampling data and water surface survey data. Review comments to an early draft or sections of the draft by Thomas Lisle, Jon Major, David Heintzman, and three anonymous peer reviewers helped to improve the quality of this manuscript.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 140 • Issue 9 • September 2014
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 2, 2012
Accepted: Feb 24, 2014
Published online: Jun 3, 2014
Published in print: Sep 1, 2014
Discussion open until: Nov 3, 2014
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