PORT ANGELES — Water users are required to conserve — and possibly ration — water today after a reservoir main ruptured and poured an estimated 3.8 million gallons into a residential area.
At least eight homes suffered water damage before crews were able to shut water valves and stop the flows by 4:40 a.m.
Public Works Director Glenn Cutliner said he hopes to have the water main repaired by midday today.
“Everybody in the city has water,” Cutler said Tuesday afternoon.
“Our citizens have come through in the past during similar emergencies. I don’t want to alarm anyone.”
The City Council, meeting in emergency session Tuesday afternoon, declared a Stage 4 — or “emergency” — water situation.
That restricts indoor and outdoor water use until further notice — possibly Thursday.
Because a backup reservoir was projected to fall to near-empty level late Tuesday night, the council authorized Cutler or City Manager Mike Quinn to declare the highest emergency — Stage 5, which requires water rationing to get through what Cutler called a “crisis.”
Clallam County Public Utility District, which receives water from the city system for unincorporated areas east of the city limit, declared an equivalent water emergency for its Gales and Fairview water systems that serve a 23-square-mile area.
Port Angeles residents use up to six million gallons water per day.
Pipeline breaks in park
The water crisis occurred overnight Tuesday when a 30-inch concrete pipeline from the Peabody Heights Reservoir on Viewcrest Avenue broke where it passes near Olympic National Park headquarters at 600 E. Park Ave.
The city’s computer system that monitors the 7 million gallon Peabody reservoir detected a sudden water loss at 2:56 a.m. Tuesday.
City Engineering Manager Steve Sperr said the break in the 44-year-old water main emptied 3.8 million gallons down Park Avenue to Peabody Creek and through view homes on the street’s northern side.
Closing off the reservoir meant the city lost 40 percent of its water supply, Sperr said.
The torrent of water flowed down the Olympic National Park driveway to the street. Much of it headed east down the sloping Park Avenue to Peabody Creek, about a quarter-mile away, eroding parts of the pavement and road shoulder along the way.
But water also flowed across the street and down a private driveway into homes on the north side of the 600 block of Park Avenue.
It continued downhill to homes on Vashon Avenue below the Park Avenue homes, and toward the Mount Angeles housing project, where it filled a parking lot.
