PORT TOWNSEND — It took several months of rain for Lords Lake to fully recover from the snowpack drought of 2014-15.
After falling to 8 feet, 5 inches in November, the lake, fed by winter rainfall, reached its full pool level of 34 feet, 6 inches on Friday, said Ken Clow, public works director for the city of Port Townsend.
The lake was last at capacity Aug. 13.
The good news for the coming summer is that the snowpack is back to normal — 101 percent of average — in the Quilcene watershed of the Olympic Mountains, Clow said Monday.
The Snotel snow measuring station at Mount Crag, which is at the elevation of 3,690 feet, showed 71 inches of snow on Tuesday, which translates to 24.5 inches of water.
There was less than one inch of snow at the site at the same time last year, Clow said.
“Hopefully this trend will continue into spring and early summer,” he said.
The city of Port Townsend relies on the Big and Little Quilcene rivers as its primary water sources. When they run low, water is drawn from the city’s two reservoirs, Lords Lake and City Lake.
Lords Lake, located northwest of Quilcene, is drained into City Lake, while City Lake is used to directly supply the city, Clow said.
Water from the rivers is then used to refill Lords Lake, he said.
Typically the city switches from the river supply to the stored lake water in late summer, but the reservoirs were heavily used last summer after the lowest snowpack on record left river levels critically low, endangering the summer and autumn salmon runs.
Stage 1 restrictions were put into place on Aug. 3. The restrictions provided for outdoor watering on alternate days.
Stage 2 would have kicked in if Lords Lake’s level fell to 3 feet, and Stage 3 would have required water rationing.
Abundant rain in December, January and February actually hindered the city’s ongoing attempt to refill the reservoir, Clow said.
The turbidity — the amount of silt in the water — caused by high water levels on the Big and Little Quilcene Rivers stayed high for much longer than usual, he said.
Clow said he expects that the water level in Lords Lake will fluctuate for several months as large spring storms raise the turbidity level of the rivers again.
“We are now into more normal activities with respect to the water system,” Clow said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
