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Corps Makes Tours of Lower Granite Dam Available by Staff Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, May 31, 2016

POMEROY -- Tours of areas ordinarily off-limits to visitors are now being offered at Lower Granite Dam.

The free tours of the dam's powerhouse, navigation lock and fish passage facilities will be offered through the end of October.

Tours will be at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Weekday tours are available on request by calling the visitor center at 509-843-1493, ext. 214, or by emailing TourLowerGranite@usace.army.mil.

Tour participants need to check in at the visitor center 10 to 15 minutes early. Participants 18 years of age or older must have official photo identification, such as a driver's license. All visitors need to wear closed-toe shoes.

No cameras, camera-enabled phones or bags will be allowed in secure areas. Participants must be U.S. citizens, unless preregistered at least 30 days in advance. Non-U.S. citizens can preregister by calling the visitor center, which is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

Dawn Waldal, Lower Granite's interpretive park ranger, said in a release the tours offer visitors an up-close look at how hydropower creates clean, renewable energy and how the fish passage system works to give salmon and steelhead a safe passage past the dam.

"A 2-million-pound removable spillway weir for fish, which won a national engineering award in 2003, has always been a tour highlight," Waldal said. "And now with several major construction and maintenance projects currently underway, there are many new and exciting things to see."