PORT TOWNSEND — City residents are encouraged to voluntarily reduce their water consumption beginning this week in light of the ongoing drought.
The City Council on Monday unanimously approved an ordinance declaring an emergency because of the ongoing drought.
The council gave City Manager David Timmons the authority to put water conservation measures into effect, including a call to the public to reduce water consumption and a plan for suspending operations at the Port Townsend Paper Corp. mill if the drought grows more severe.
“I feel that this plan is a sound plan,” Mayor David King said during the meeting.
The ordinance includes a drought contingency response plan that consists of five stages, each coming into effect if the drought worsens as measured by the level of water in Lords Lake, a backup for city water supply.
Lords Lake was at 37 feet, 7 ½ inches on Tuesday morning, said Public Works Director Ken Clow.
“This is 1½ inches lower than the Monday morning reading and 5½ inches down from the pool maximum level,” Clow said.
Gov. Jay Inslee declared a drought on the North Olympic Peninsula, among other areas, on March 13. On May 15, Inslee declared a statewide drought emergency.
The city is currently in Stage 1, which urges voluntary conservation.
Stage 2 would begin automatically if the amount of water in Lord Lake, drops to 15 feet.
Each stage thereafter would be contingent on the water in the lake being depleted to other predetermined benchmarks.
If the drought becomes severe enough for Stage 4 to be implemented, Port Townsend Paper Corp., the largest private employer in Jefferson County with 295 workers, would suspend operations and limit water use to that essential for health and safety — about 1 million gallons a day to keep the boilers in operation.
The mill recently cut its consumption from 15 million to 10 million gallons daily, according to General Manager Carr Tyndall.
Kevin Scott, director of sustainability, has said the mill is determining methods to cut consumption down to 7 million gallons a day.
Felix Vicino, Port Townsend Paper Corp.’s human resources director, has declined to provide details about how many employees would be laid off or retained if the mill must curtail operations.
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 rivers no longer meet water needs.
The rivers are fed by melting snowpack in the Olympic Mountains. But there is no measurable snowpack this year.
Because of the lack of snowpack, stream flows feeding the city’s water supply are at less than one-third of normal for this time of year, according to the city’s public works department.
“The precipitation is not that far out of whack this year, relative to other years,” King said.
“What is critical and has changed for us this year is the snowpack. The mountains aren’t storing our water for us this year.”
The city currently uses less than 2 million gallons per day, according Clow.
The plan aims to reduce that amount.
Stage 1 encourages voluntary conservation of water among residents.
The goal is to have a reduction in consumption of at least 5 percent.
Stage 1 measures:
■ Voluntary customer water conservation.
■ City initiation of water conservation measures in city parks and facilities.
■ Elimination of reservoir and storage tank overflows.
■ Postponement of flushing and hydrant testing.
■ Request Port Townsend Golf Course reduce watering to tees and greens.
■ Request East Jefferson Fire-Rescue eliminate unnecessary use of water.
■ Send letters to area schools and Fort Worden State Park requesting they minimize outdoor watering.
Stage 2 would take effect if the water level at Lords Lake drops to 15 feet.
The goal would be to reduce water consumption by 10 percent.
Stage 2 would create alternating days for outdoor watering.
Even-numbered addresses would water only on even-numbered days, with odd-numbered addresses watering only on odd-numbered days.
Stage 3 would take effect if the water level at Lords Lake drops to zero feet.
The goal of this stage would be to cut water consumption by 20 percent.
Stage three measures.
■ Customers would be limited to once-a-week outdoor watering.
■ Vehicle washing would be prohibited except at commercial car washes.
■ Water would not be used for construction projects to reduce dust.
■ Customers would be encouraged to reduce indoor use of water.
■ Door hangers or personal contact would be used to notify violators.
■ Repeat violations would subject the consumer to potential shutoff.
Stage 4 would take effect if Lords Lake contained less than 40 million gallons of water below the bottom of the outlet structure.
Stage 4 measures:
■ The entire volume of City Lake would be reserved for municipal consumption.
■ Port Townsend Paper Corp. would suspend operations.
Stage 5 would take effect if Lords Lake were empty and the water level at City Lake were at 34 feet, 6 inches.
The City Council is responsible for issuing a Stage 5 declaration.
The goal of this stage would be to reduce consumption to 30 percent below the average daily demand and to ensure City Lake is at least half full at the end of November.
Stage 5 measures:
■ No outdoor water use would be permitted.
■ Non-critical accounts would be turned off after notification to the customers.
■ Penalties, such as monetary or shutoff, would be applied for violations.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
