gov). This became known as the Skagit River Hydroelectric Project, consisting of three dams: Gorge Dam, Diablo Dam and Ross Dam (Pflug et al., 2007). The three dams combine to generate over 788 Megawatts (Pflug et al., 2007). All three dams today still produced over 20 percent of Seattle electricity (seattle.gov). Additionally, these dams are important part of Seattle's water storage.
Diablo Dam .
The Diablo Dam was established in the 1930 but, it was not generating electricity until 1936 (ecy.wa.gov). At the time, the Diablo Dam was the tallest dam in the world standing at 389 feet (Pflug et al., 2007). Figure 2, shows the first five years of Diablo Dam's stream flow data. As you can see, when comparing it to figure 3 the stream flow has decreased over time. An explanation to this decreased is that the amount of water the Skagit River receive back does not match the amount of water it releases. In addition, the Diablo reservoir is the source of water for resident along the Skagit River (seattel.gov). Even though the Diablo Dam served the essential need of humans for water and energy source, the negative effects cannot be ignored (Pflug et al., 2007). Figure 4, shows how enormous the Diablo Dam and the ingenuity it took to build it. With the creation of the Diablo Dam, the Diablo Reservoir was established causing a large portion of the land behind the dam to be under water. .
Land and Aquatic Life and Ongoing Restoration.
The establishment of the Diablo Dam has greatly impacted the aquatic life within the Skagit River. From the article Preserving Salmon Biodiversity: The number of Pacific salmon has declined dramatically. But the loss of genetic diversity may be a bigger problem by Phillip Levin and Michael Schiewe, explains the enormous damage dams has on salmon. Levin and Schiewe points out that the decline of salmon population "accelerated in the 1970s, and by the 1990s the U.S Endangered Species Act listed 26 kinds of salmon as endangered or threatened (2001).
