PORT TOWNSEND — If the city water supply dips too low, Port Townsend Paper Corp., the largest private employer in Jefferson County with 295 workers, will suspend operations.
A mill shutdown would have “significant economic impact,” said David Timmons, Port Townsend city manager.
Felix Vicino, Port Townsend Paper Corp.’s human resources director, declined to provide any details about how many employees would be laid off or retained during a shutdown period.
“Any comments or strategies would be mere speculation and that’s something we’re not prepared to do,” Vicino said in an email.
A proposed water plan would require the mill to suspend operations if supply falls below a certain level, Timmons said.
“We have a formula and a timeline that calculates water use that begins as soon as we go off-river,” he said, adding that the plan depends on City Lake being half full, with 70 million gallons by Nov. 15.
“We need to have a certain amount of water available to us, and the formula allows us to accomplish this, which could require the mill to shut down.”
The Port Townsend City Council will consider declaring an emergency when it meets at 6:30 p.m. Monday in its chambers at historic City Hall at 540 Water St.
The declaration would give the city manager the authority to put water conservation measures into effect.
A plan is needed because stream flows that feed the city’s water supply are at less than a third of normal for this time of year, city staff said.
Gov. Jay Inslee declared a drought on the North Olympic Peninsula, among other areas, on March 13 this year. On May 15, Inslee declared a statewide drought emergency.
The city draws its water from the Big Quilcene and Little Quilcene Rivers, using Lords Lake in Quilcene and City Lake in Chimacum as backups when the river no longer meets water needs.
The city of Port Townsend uses less than 2 million gallons per day, according to Public Works Director Ken Clow.
The mill recently cut its consumption from 15 million to 10 million gallons daily, according to General Manager Carr Tyndall.
It is implementing further water conservation measures with the possibility of cutting consumption to as low as 7 million gallons a day, said Kevin Scott, director of sustainability.
Details of any action by the mill in shutting down would depend upon many variables, Vicino said, citing weather, lake levels, operating strategies and external events such as the pulp and container board markets.
“All would impact on any decision we make,” he said in an email.
“These are all sensitive issues that we think through and address as they occur.”
According to a proposed plan, the city would monitor the mill’s daily use and impose a required shutdown date based on those numbers, Timmons said.
If shutdown occurs, the mill will still use about 1 million gallons daily to keep the boilers running, Scott said.
Conservation measures are expensive and would be suspended if the water supply approached normal levels, he said.
“We’re going to do everything we can to reduce our water usage, such as installing three cooling towers, encouraging our employees to practice good water conservation practices, moving up our annual maintenance shutdown and then address circumstances and conditions as they arise,” Vicino said.
The proposed plan has five stages for conservation: voluntary conservation, outdoor restrictions that require alternate days for landscape watering, mandatory outdoor restrictions and indoor conservation, pumping Lords Lake and water rationing, which would allow only “essential use of water.”
Currently, city and mill officials meet monthly to discuss the levels.
If Lords Lake reaches a 25-foot depth, the meetings will take place weekly, according to the proposed plan.
If water levels meet a stage two response in which outdoor restrictions are imposed, the city and mill will keep the state Department of Health Office of Drinking Water and Jefferson County Department of Health advised of the situation on a real-time basis, according to the plan.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
