United States Toutle River Sediment Plain

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Joe Becker

About this spot
After the eruption of Mount Saint Helens in 1980, there was a fear that debris from the eruption would cause catastrophic floods downstream on the Toutle and Cowlitz Rivers. To prevent these floods, the US Army Corps of Engineers built a dam on the Toutle River to trap and retain sediments washing down off the mountain and eruption area. That dam, known as the Toutle River Sediment Retention Structure, worked well and created a large sparsely vegetated plain of sediments along the Toutle River and its tributary, Hoffstadt Creek.

Initially, the the Corps thought the basin behind the dam would not be filled until 2035. But by 2012, the basin was nearly full and large amounts of sediment were being washed downstream. Consequently, the dam spillway was raised to trap additional sediments. Today, it is nearly full again.

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