OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — A power outage scheduled for Wednesday in the Elwha Valley will affect only the ranger station and the Elwha Campground.
The outage will be from 8:30 a.m. to late afternoon, said Mike Howe, Clallam County Public Utility District spokesman.
“It’s now been coordinated and all is good,” Howe said Tuesday.
No private electrical power users on Olympic Hot Springs Road will be affected.
“It does not impact any PUD customers other than the [park’s] ranger station and the Elwha Campground,” Howe said.
The planned outage is one of several that will occur as crews remove power lines and poles at the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams over the next two weeks.
Taking down the power lines is part of the $27 million removal of the two dams by Barnard Construction of Bozeman, Mont., that began in mid-September.
The park announced the planned outage last week.
On Monday, Howe said that the PUD had not been contacted.
Barb Maynes, park spokeswoman, said late Monday that coordination with the PUD was up to the contractor.
Brian Krohmer of Barnard Construction was not available Monday night to comment.
On Tuesday, Howe said that all had been clarified.
Krohmer said that “Barnard has been coordinating with PUD on this outage and it is scheduled and is going to happen.”
The removal of the dams is the centerpiece of the National Park Service’s $325 million federal Elwha River restoration project, expected to be completed in three years, to return the river — know for its legendary salmon runs — to its wild state.
