LETTER: Planning for water

Published 1:30 am Saturday, April 4, 2026

Further to the letter published March 1 criticizing the Feb. 7 Rant about the Sequim Planning Commission allowing too much development during a drought, the reference to Cliff Mass arguing that we are not suffering a drought in the Sequim area is probably correct in terms of rainfall.

However, the water that municipalities depend on is derived from the release of melting snowpack over the summer months, not rainfall.

As of February this year, the snowpack is about 35 percent to 45 percent of normal, and it is not expected to improve significantly, according to the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service.

It is being referred to as a snowpack drought.

Given the pattern of climate warming and reducing snowfall in the mountains that is likely to continue on into the future, all of the glaciers that grace the Olympic Mountains are shrinking and expected to be gone by 2070, the continued approval of new development without consideration of how these will be supplied with water is really not responsible.

I concur with the ranter.

Paul V. Hansen

Sequim