The Elwha River runs from the Olympic Mountains northward into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. These satellite images by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) show Elwha from above. The removal of Elwha's two dams would be the largest dam removal in US history and the biggest controlled sediment release. The Elwha and Glines Canyon dams trapped an estimated 19 million cubic meters of sediment. Researchers say that's enough dirt to fill 11 football fields the height of the Empire State Building.
