Brownlee Dam
Brownlee Dam is a hydroelectric earth fill embankment dam in the Western [United States|western] United States, on the Snake River along the Idaho-Oregon border. In Hells Canyon at river mile 285, it impounds the Snake River in the Brownlee Reservoir.
Description
[Image:Brownleeferry.JPG|thumb|left|Namesake of the Brownlee Dam & Reservoir, July 2008]The dam is part of the Hells Canyon Project that also includes Hells Canyon Dam and Oxbow Dam, all built and operated by Idaho Power Company. The first and upper-most of the three dams, its contractor was Morrison-Knudsen of Boise. Filling started on, flooding the community of Robinette, Oregon.
The dam's powerhouse contains five generating units with a total nameplate capacity of 585.4 megawatts.
Lacking passage for migrating salmon, the three Hells Canyon Project dams blocked access by anadromous salmonids to a stretch of the Snake River drainage basin from Hells Canyon Dam up to Shoshone Falls, which naturally prevents any upstream fish passage to the upper Snake River basin.