PORT ANGELES — The City Council has rescinded a seasonal flat water rate that would have benefitted gardeners and green-lawn proponents to encourage conservation in light of an anticipated water shortage.
By a 5-2 vote Tuesday —with Lee Whetham and Dan Gase opposed — council members decided to stay in a tiered-rate structure for June rather than impose a uniform seasonal-rate system that would have encouraged gardens and lush lawns.
The council approved the tiered-rate ordinance amendment without a second reading and a second public hearing.
“I originally supported lowering water rates so we could water our shrubbery and gardens and lawns in the summer,” said council member and former Mayor Cherie Kidd.
“This is an extraordinary year where we are faced with the lowest snowpack I am familiar with.”
Gov. Jay Inslee declared a drought emergency for the North Olympic region including Clallam and Jefferson counties in March because of the low snowpack, which was 1 percent of median in the Olympic Mountains on Thursday, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Residents have been paying higher tiered rates for water in January-May so they could pay less in June-August under a flat rate — to cover an anticipated lower-revenue seasonal-rate program that has now been eliminated.
The revenue from the higher rates imposed during the first half of this year will be factored into possible lower rates in 2016.
The 2016 rates will depend on revenue generated from water consumption throughout 2015, Public Works Director Craig Fulton said Wednesday.
But rates could increase because residents are conserving water.
“Even with the adjusted rates, if people really cut back on water usage, that will have a significant deficit impact on revenue,” Fulton said.
“If there are any revenue gains or losses throughout the year, that will be factored into future rate adjustments up or down.”
Under the seasonal structure, residential water customers would have paid $2 per 100 cubic feet of water used in June, July and August regardless of consumption.
The seasonal water consumption rate was a hybrid of the existing three-tier, consumption-based system and a proposed $2.60 flat rate for residential water users.
The first-tier water consumption rate beginning in June will be $2.27 per 100 cubic feet for customers who use less than 1,000 cubic feet of water per month.
Ninety-one percent of residential customers fall into that low-consumption tier in the fall, winter and spring.
Second-tier customers, who use between 1,000 and 1,500 cubic feet of water a month, will pay $2.87 per 100 cubic feet of water.
Third-tier customers, who use more than 1,500 cubic feet of water a month, will pay $3.46 per 100 cubic feet of water.
“A record warm rainy season (October through March) in Washington state has caused the majority of the precipitation to fall as rain rather than snow in the mountains,” Fulton said in written report to the council.
City officials have implemented Stage 1 of the Water Shortage Response Plan, under which city staff will review the city water conservation plan and consider conducting a water conservation promotional campaign.
Stage 2 is voluntary conservation and implementation of the public information campaign.
Stage 3 is voluntary outdoor restrictions, Stage 4 is mandatory outdoor restrictions and Stage 5 is water rationing.
The city obtains its water from the Elwha River from its Ranney collector well and the Elwha Water Treatment Plant run by the National Park Service.
Fulton said a water shortage is most likely to occur in late August or early September rather than later in the fall.
Nippon Paper Industries USA uses most of the water administered by the city by leasing the city pipeline it flows through for the company’s paper mill operations.
Nippon does not pay on the basis of consumption.
“It’s no cost to the city to supply the water,” Fulton said Wednesday.
But Whetham said at Tuesday’s meeting that Nippon’s actual usage should be addressed.
“The idea that we are going to hurt 100 percent of the people that use 25 percent of the water is preposterous,” he said.
In other action at Tuesday’s 5½-hour council meeting, council members approved two rights-of-way street vacations for Olympic Medical Center’s new medical office building, agreeing to close off Caroline Street between Race and Washington streets and an alley between Race and Washington.
Council members also approved land-use changes that allow the construction of the building at a height that exceeds the allowed 30-foot height in exchange for open-space and pedestrian-friendly amenities.
The vote was 6-1, with Sissi Bruch voting no. She argued there was too much pavement for parking and too little open space created by the project.
“It turned into an engineered solution for the car,” she said.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
