PORT TOWNSEND — The low snowpack in the Olympic Mountains will cause Port Townsend Paper Corp. to take conservation measures, according to the company’s new general manager.
“There is a water-use issue,” said Carr Tyndall, who began his new position March 30.
“We are going over our conservation plan to see what we can do to reduce water use and may have to take some dramatic steps this summer,” he said.
The snowpack in the Olympic Mountains was at 4 percent of average Wednesday, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.
As a first step, Tyndall plans to meet with the officials of the city of Port Townsend, which owns and operates the water system used by the mill.
“We will schedule a time over the next few weeks to give [Tyndall] a tour of the watershed,” said City Manager David Timmons.
The watershed includes the Big Quilcene and Little Quilcene rivers. Water is held in the Lords Lake and City Lake reservoirs.
The mill, the largest employer in East Jefferson County with some 300 workers, uses 12 million gallons of water per day compared with a daily average of about
1 million gallons by residential and business customers, Timmons said.
The mill does not pay for the water. According to the lease agreement, mill employees maintain the system in return for the water.
The lease agreement between the mill and the city will expire in 2020. At that time, the lease will be renegotiated, Timmons said.
“It’s been working well but is not ideal,” he said.
“When it expires, we will have to create a different arrangement.”
Without the mill, the water in the reservoirs could sustain the system for 2½ years, Timmons said.
While the mill is in operation, reservoirs hold a 120- to 140-day supply.
The city water supply depends on spring and summer rainfall as well as snowmelt.
“The snowpack acts like another reserve,” Timmons said.
“We can only draw the river down to a certain level,” he explained.
“If there is no rain and the snowpack isn’t there, it will be a greater demand on a limited supply, and we will only have enough water to last 90 days.”
If this occurs, the city will impose conservation measures on all users.
Users other than the mill represent what Timmons calls “a drop in the bucket” when it comes to saving water.
“We are recommending that people don’t do any major landscaping this year,” he said.
“By the time summer rolls around, we might be in conservation mode.”
Timmons said one conservation mode for the mill is for it to use coolers that recycle the mill’s water.
Water levels fell to dangerous levels in 2002 and 2007. During those years, the mill scheduled its maintenance shutdown when the levels were at their lowest, Timmons said.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
