A meeting to discuss the drought in Washington and what’s being done about it — both on the North Olympic Peninsula and statewide — will take place at 7 p.m. Aug. 30 in Port Angeles.
The forum will bring together representatives of the state Executive Water Emergency Committee and the Water Supply Availability Committee as well as water experts and local representatives at the North Olympic Library System branch at 2210 S. Peabody St.
Information at the meeting will deal specifically with conditions in the Lower Elwha and Dungeness river watersheds.
“That’s an area where streams have been setting record low flows in the past few weeks,” said Curt Hart, a spokesman for the state Department of Ecology.
The Dungeness River recorded a new record low flow of 115 cubic feet per second Monday, according to U.S. Geological Survey Data.
The Elwha River recorded a flow of 254 cubic feet per second, which while not a new record was close to it.
Both levels were well below average stream flows on record, which in the Dungeness River’s case go back 75 years.
This time of year is usually dry in Western Washington and stream flows are generally low. It’s particularly bad this year because the snowpack, which sustains rivers through the dry spells, was much smaller than usual.