It’s time for the public to take notice of the long-planned reservoir to store Dungeness River water.
The 30 percent engineering plans are complete.
The county is promoting the project at 6 p.m. Tuesday, at the Sequim River Center next to the Railroad Bridge.
Please come.
You can read about the reservoir’s water management benefits on the county’s website.
What you won’t see amongst the website’s statistics and pretty lake pictures is that the reservoir’s 500 million gallons of water is to be held back by a tall earthen dam made of compacted soil.
The proposed design is no ground-level lake; we’re talking about a three-story-high intermediate or large earthen dam requiring permits from the Washington State Department of Dam Safety.
The basis of design report and the 30 percent engineering report are posted at www.riverroadreservoir.com.
Those reports show that engineers have proposed a viable alternative that is about 15 feet shorter than the currently proposed dam.
That design has support from stakeholders.
Let’s ask for that.
The safest possible and practical reservoir design is different from a design meeting the most stringent safety standards for the proposed dam size.
Consider an eventual Cascadia earthquake.
We can have better, something well-suited to the area.
Unless we ask for reassessment, the county will likely proceed with only a few tweaks.
Check out the meeting recording of the county’s Nov. 28 presentation to the Sequim City Council.
Please attend the meeting and add your voice.
Paul R. Moore
Sequim