OLYMPIA — State money is expected to provide a more reliable water supply for customers in the Fairview Water District near Port Angeles and has already been put to work augmenting flows in a Sequim creek with reclaimed water.
The state Department of Ecology approved a $258,190 grant to the Clallam County Public Utility District for the water district and another $21,783 grant to the city of Sequim.
The grants cover half the cost of the projects.
The PUD will use the grant to offset the cost needed to plan, design and construct a permanent booster pump system to deliver water uphill to a reservoir that provides water for 566 customers in the district’s Fairview Water System.
In early August, additional water was provided to those customers via a temporary water pipeline, which cost about $175,000 to implement, Doug Nass, the PUD’s general manager, has said.
PUD officials could not be reached for additional comment Tuesday.
The city of Sequim will use the grant money to offset the estimated $40,000 it has cost to fund a pilot project to pump reclaimed water into Bell Creek over the summer, David Garlington, city public works director, said Tuesday.
Fairview project
The temporary Fairview project became necessary after the flows at Morse Creek — the primary water supply for about 1,300 Fairview customers during a normal year — declined to low levels during the recent drought.
The Clallam County utility district ceased diversions from Morse Creek in mid-June after flows fell to less than 25 cubic feet per second, threatening fish habitat.
When the creek’s flow slows to 25 cfs, the district can no longer draw water from the water diversion above Morse Creek Falls to protect fish, in accordance with state regulations.
The temporary pumping system reversed the flow in the piping system originally designed to bring water from Morse Creek to about 750 lower Fairview customers.
It instead pumped in water from newly constructed wells to augment the water supply in the creek.
The wells took 10 years and cost $8 million to complete.
The Sequim project began in August after the city installed a pump and constructed approximately 800 feet of pipe and an energy-dissipating waterfall to channel purified sewage water directly into Bell Creek just to the west of Washington Harbor.
In late summer, the flow of water in Bell Creek also had fallen to extremely low levels that posed a risk to native fish species.
The reclaimed water entered Bell Creek after being treated at the Sequim Water Reclamation Facility at 247 Schmuck Road before that pump was shut off recently, Garlington said.
The extra flows augmented the water pulled from the creek downstream at the Maple View Dairy Farm to irrigate hay fields.
A second pump already installed upriver continues to pump water into Bell Creek at the Water Reuse Demonstration Park, Garlington said.
After the Maple View Dairy Farm discontinued irrigation, “we turned the pump off and now we are pumping all of our excess reclaimed water up into the reuse reclamation site and into Bell Creek at that point,” Garlington said.
“It is still going into Bell Creek except upstream, and then we are monitoring water levels and temperatures and oxygen levels in the stream in order to get some baseline data for doing this work in the future.”
When the project began, about 250 gallons of water per minute was placed into the creek, Garlington said.
Currently, about 400 gallons of water a minute enters the creek, he said.
And with the recent increase in rainfall, “we are definitely seeing an increase in the level of the creek,” he said.
Continuing drought
Although fall rains have returned, the North Olympic Peninsula remains in moderate to severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor at http://tinyurl.com/PDN-droughtmonitorwashington.
Some 68 percent of the state remains in extreme drought, Ecology said in a news release.
Gov. Jay Inslee made the entire state eligible for drought relief funding when he declared a statewide drought May 15.
Cities, public utilities and irrigation districts can get help paying for developing alternative water supplies or deepening existing groundwater wells through the $16 million Ecology grant program.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
