| Brownlee Dam | |
|---|---|
| Official name | Brownlee Dam |
| Location | Hells Canyon, Baker County, Oregon / Washington County, Idaho, USA |
| Opening date | 1958 |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Height | 420 ft (128 m) |
| Impounds | Snake River |
| Reservoir | |
| Creates | Brownlee Reservoir |
| Capacity | 1,426,700 acre feet (1.7598 km3) |
| Catchment area | 72,590 square miles (188,000 km²) |
| Surface area | 15,000 acres (61 km²) |
Brownlee Dam is a hydroelectric earth fill embankment dam on the Snake River on the Idaho-Oregon border, in Hells Canyon (river mile 285). It impounds the Snake River in the 58-mile (93 km) long Brownlee Reservoir. It is part of the Hells Canyon Project that also includes Hells Canyon Dam and Oxbow Dam, built and operated by Idaho Power Company.
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.
There is a 100-by-60-foot (30 x 18 m) private heliport, Brownlee Heliport, (FAA LID: OR75) located near the dam.
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