07/15/2008

Associated Press

After spending about $114 million to begin building the Elk Creek Dam, the Army Corps of Engineers is about to tear it down.

Contractors were scheduled to start demolition work on Tuesday at the partially built dam on a tributary of the Rogue River north of Medford.

Over the next two months, crews will pack nearly a ton and a half of explosives into the dam, blasting it away layer by layer.

Lawsuits to protect fish stopped its construction more than 20 years ago when the dam was only about a third complete.

By this fall, threatened coho salmon and other fish should be able to make their way past the dam instead of being trapped below it.

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Information from: The Oregonian, http://www.oregonlive.com