The North Olympic Peninsula’s drought has eased, but that isn’t likely to translate into relaxed restrictions on the use of water until at least October or November.
The U.S. Drought Monitor on Sept. 1 stepped back from a rating of extreme drought in Clallam and Jefferson counties that it had announced Aug. 13 on its website at http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu.
Recent rain dampened county burn bans this month from prohibitions set on all outdoor burning this summer to allowing recreational fires in approved fire pits or rings.
But the region is still in a severe drought, the Drought Monitor said, and area officials said that water restrictions in Port Angeles and Port Townsend won’t be lifted soon.
Both Port Townsend City Manager David Timmons and Craig Fulton, Port Angeles public works and utilities director, said that water restrictions are likely to remain in effect until late October or November.
Port Angeles
Heavy rainfall the weekend of Aug. 29 was welcome but didn’t change the need for Stage 3 restrictions put into place Aug. 5 in Port Angeles and in Clallam County Public Utility District areas east of the city that are served with Port Angeles water, Fulton said.
Under Stage 3 limits, water customers with even-numbered addresses can water outdoors only on even-numbered dates.
Residents with odd-numbered addresses should water only on odd-numbered days.
Stage 3 restrictions also will remain in place for Clallam PUD’s Upper Fairview Water District, which obtains its water from Morse Creek east of the Port Angeles city limit.
“We don’t have any immediate plans or projected dates where that’s going to change, either,” PUD spokesman Mike Howe said.
Morse is fed by the Olympic Mountains’ snowpack. This year, the snowpack is at zero.
Howe added that recent rains also might help remove water restrictions imposed on a 40-connection system in Neah Bay.
Port Angeles obtains its water from the Elwha River, which requires flows of more than 300 cubic feet per second and cool temperatures to sustain salmon migrating up the river to spawn in the waterway, newly reopened with the removal of the Glines Canyon and Elwha dams.
“We continue to watch the river levels dropping off again,” Fulton said.
“We’re back down to 300 cubic feet per second.
“The temperatures have dropped, which is good for the fish.”
Fulton said heavy rains two weeks ago coursed into the Elwha, but the precipitation was not enough to make up for the drought.
“We need two weeks of steady rain to recharge the subsurface aquifers,” he said.
There remains enough water in city reservoirs for human consumption, Fulton said.
Port Townsend
Limited reservoir capacity in Port Townsend will cause restrictions there to remain in place, mainly due to operations at Port Townsend Paper Corp., Timmons said.
“The rain was a nice relief,” Timmons said.
“What has happened is that mill production is at a higher rate because of mechanical problems.
“It’s kind of negating the gains.”
Port Townsend is in Stage 1 of a three-stage water conservation plan that went into effect Aug. 3.
Residential users are allowed to water only on alternate days that correspond to their addresses: Odd- or even-numbered street addresses are to water on corresponding odd- or even-numbered calendar dates.
Stage 2 would be triggered by Lords Lake — a Quilcene reservoir that, along with City Lake, serves as a backup city water supply — falling to 3 feet.
If Stage 2 comes into effect, the paper mill — the largest single user of city water — would cease operations, Timmons has said.
Specifics of a shutdown plan — and how the 295 workers at the mill would be affected — would depend on the situation and cannot be predicted, mill officials have said.
The mill had lowered consumption from 15 million to 10 million gallons daily by early August and planned to reduce use more, according to Kevin Scott, director of sustainability at the mill.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant and reporter Arwyn Rice contributed to this story.
