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Environmental Stewardship
Savage Rapids Dam is located in southern Oregon, on the Rogue River; just 5 miles upstream from the city of Grants Pass. Savage Rapids dam was built in 1921 to divert river flows for the Grants Pass Irrigation District. In 2001, Symbiotics’ engineers identified a potential 6-Megawatt run-of-the-river hydroelectric project on Savage Rapids Dam. Symbiotics’ staff subsequently filed for, and received a preliminary permit (FERC #11959) to initiate preliminary environmental studies.
Symbiotics’ environmental staff felt that Savage Rapids Dam could not accommodate a run-of-the-river hydroelectric project that would be both an environmental and economic asset to the community of Grants Pass. Symbiotics relinquished their preliminary permit for the 6MW hydroelectric project in March of 2002. The removal of Savage Rapids Dam began in October of 2006, and the dam is expected to be completly removed by late 2009 in order to aid migrating salmon in the Rogue River. |
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Although the dam had fish ladders, they did not meet current regulations, nor could they be easily reconstructed to fully accommodate anadromous fish passage. At times, the dam blocked nearly 500 miles of upstream spawning habitat for salmon, habitat found almost exclusively upstream of the diversion.