BONNER -- The Blackfoot River is flowing freely for the first time in more than a century now that crews have removed Bonner Dam, a project tied to the upcoming removal of the larger Milltown Dam on the Clark Fork River nearby.
Remediation company Envirocon finished removing the 120-year-old Bonner Dam, also called Stimson Dan, on Friday. The project begun on Oct. 17 ended a week early. "It came out pretty much just like we expected," said Matt Fein, Evirocon's senior project director.
The dam east of Missoula was built in 1884 to corral logs floated down the Blackfoot to a sawmill owned by Stimson Lumber Co., and to provide power to the sawmill and nearby communities. The dam had been largely immersed since Milltown Dam was built just after the turn of the century.
Bonner Dam was 30 to 35 feet tall and 210 feet long. Milltown Reservoir was lowered 8 feet in preparation for the project. Fein said the work was a confidence booster for Envirocon, which will be involved in the Milltown removal within a couple of years. "Our models worked," Fein said. "The river reacted like we thought it would. Water quality levels were just about what we expected."
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http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/11/22/build/state/53-bonner-dam.inc
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