LAKE SUTHERLAND — Lake Sutherland is rising, and no one can stop it without an extensive permitting process, according to homeowners on the lake’s edge.
The lake has reached 16 inches above its normal water level, thanks to a combination of blockage of the lake’s outlet to Indian Creek and the high rainfall and snowmelt, said Gene Unger, president of the Maple Grove Home Owners Association.
“It’s pretty high, and over some decks,” Unger said.
Resident John Mars said his own docks are still above water, but knows others whose docks are now covered by the lake’s rising water.
“I don’t know the extent of it. One neighbor’s dock is underwater, another is half-submerged,” Marrs said. Neither are full-time residents, he said.
Lake Sutherland is a 350-acre natural lake that was formed when an ancient landslide separated it from Lake Crescent.
While Lake Crescent’s water level rose about 70 feet and found a new outlet at Lyre River after the landslide, Lake Sutherland still drains through the original outlet at Indian Creek, a tributary of the Elwha River.
The creek and lake are home to native Kokanee sockeye salmon, a landlocked form of Pacific salmon, coastal cutthroat trout and rainbow trout.
There are more than 250 landowners along the shores of the popular lake community, where some families live and others have had summer cabins for generations.
Jim Haguewood is one of those whose memory of the lake goes back decades at his family cabin on the lake shore.
“I’ve only seen it higher once,” Haguewood said.
The water and winds have carried enough debris into its outlet to Indian Creek to create blockage and is keeping the higher than normal rainfall and snowmelt from draining away, he said.
Unger said no one is sure how much woody debris is currently plugging the stream, but it will require permits from the state Department of Ecology and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife before it can be removed.
The lake and river are under state management, and the property owners do not have the authority to have the blockage removed without the proper permits, which can take months to get.
Clallam County also lacks authority to act, said Administrator Jim Jones.
Homeowners said they have tried to reach Fish and Wildlife because they believe the agency could issue an emergency hydrology permit, but said they have not been able to make contact.
Calls to the local agency representative from the Peninsula Daily News on Friday, Saturday and Sunday were not answered.
This week many residents began posting pictures of their under-water docks, on Port Angeles area Facebook pages, including photos of the logjam that is causing the rising waters.
Many of the trees were large, the photos showed, and it will take heavy equipment to move some of the logs.
“Last time, it took months and a lot of money raised by property owners,” Haguewood said of the permits and work required to clear out the debris.
He said high water causes hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage even if it doesn’t get so high as to damage homes.
“It ruins docks; pops up the decks and pulls pilings,” he said.
Haguewood said the docks and decks are very expensive to replace, and difficult to get the permits for replacement.
________
Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
