PORT ANGELES — The Clallam County commissioners want to hear from the public about the state Department of Ecology’s draft water management rule in the Dungeness River valley.
Commissioners will hear comments at 10:45 a.m. today after the regular commissioner meeting that will begin at 10 a.m. in Room 160 at the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.
The three commissioners must formulate comments on the preliminary rule prior to Feb. 17.
The rule for the Elwha-Dungeness Water Resources Area 18, which also encompasses nine streams between the Elwha and Dungeness rivers, is scheduled for Ecology’s adoption sometime in August, officially going into effect 31 days after the official adoption date.
Under the rule, new homeowners who want to garden would have to buy “water credits” from the Dungeness Basin Water Exchange, Ecology spokeswoman Ann Wessel has said.
Irrigators with longtime water rights in the valley would go largely untouched.
The rule is being developed in the Dungeness Valley with water basin stakeholders to address surface and ground water management.
Washington Water Trust — in cooperation with Ecosystem Economics of Bend, Ore. — is working jointly with basin stakeholders, Clallam County and Ecology to develop a water exchange.
The state will meter or find a metering partner such as the Clallam County Public Utility District to help enforce the new water regulations, Wessel has said.
The primary objective of the water exchange is to support some new water allocations in the watershed while restoring and protecting stream flows in the Dungeness River, its tributaries and small independent streams.
Ecology was authorized by the state Legislature to develop new rules in water basins throughout the state to protect water tables and keep river flows high enough to support fish.
