PORT TOWNSEND — Warm, dry weather means Port Townsend may have to rely upon reserves sooner than usual this year.
Ian Jablonski, water resource manager for Port Townsend, said that by the end of this week, the city may have to stop drawing water from the Big Quilcene River entirely and rely solely on the water reserve in Lord’s Lake.
‘Pretty dry’ year
“The problem is that this year has been pretty dry, and we had less snow pack than average over the winter,” Jablonski said.
“Because of those issues and not having much in the way of precipitation since May, we are looking at drawing water from Lord’s Lake earlier than normal.”
For most of the year, Port Townsend’s water is drawn from the Big Quilcene and Little Quilcene rivers. But the state regulates how much the city may pull from the rivers during the summer months, when the water levels get low.
“We have already stopped pulling from the Little,” Jablonski said.
“And when the Big water levels get below 27 cubic feet per second below our diversion, we will need to stop pulling all the water from there.”
As early as Wednesday
Jablonski said, depending on the weather, that could begin as soon as Wednesday.
The backup plan is Lord’s Lake, the city reservoir, which can supply water to the city for about a month with no additional pull from the rivers.
However, Jablonski said the most likely scenario will be to take water from both the Big Quilcene River and the lake.
“Each day, the pull from the river will get throttled back a little bit,” he said.
“If we do that, we can run out of the river and the lake for two or 2 ½ months and wait for the rain to come.”
The pulling of water from Lord’s Lake is not an uncommon practice, but the first part of August is a bit early, Jablonski said.
Jablonski said that typically, the city doesn’t tap into the reserves until late August or September.
Conserving water
City officials are urging water-users to conserve.
The major user of the city’s water supply is Port Townsend Paper Corp.
While city residents use about 1 million gallons of water per day, the mill uses more than 14 million gallons daily.
Jablonski said the city and the mill are working together to reduce the mill’s use of water.
“The mill is taking a number of steps to conserve and reduce the use of water,” he said.
“As for citizens, obviously the more water they can conserve now, the longer we can extend the use of the reservoir.
“Until we get rainwater, that’s what we’ve got.”
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Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com.
