Priest Rapids Project

In the 1950s and 1960s Grant PUD’s elected commissioners, with the support of county citizens, developed two dams (Wanapum and Priest Rapids) on the Columbia River to harness water power in the production of clean, renewable, low-cost power. Both Earth embankment and concrete gravity dams were financed by long-term revenue bonds retired through power sales; no tax money or government appropriations were used for construction of the project. The two-dam Priest Rapids Project is one of the Nation’s largest hydropower developments, able to produce 2,000 megawatts of electricity – enough to power the city of Seattle!

Grant PUD manages resources in and along the reservoirs above both dams with the goal of balancing protection of wildlife, shoreline habitat and archeological sites with reservoir and shoreline recreational use. Project boundaries encompass over 34,000 acres of land.

Tour of the Priest Rapids Project