PORT ANGELES — It’s all about fish that are slowly returning to the Elwha River following the removal of two dams.
They must be protected from the drought, city and Lower Elwha Klallam tribal officials said last week.
Craig Fulton, city public works and utilities director, said Stage 3 drought emergency restrictions on outdoor watering of lawns and gardens will likely be imposed this summer to protect salmon health in the Elwha River.
The restrictions won’t be to preserve the city’s water supply.
“Stage 3 would be for the fish,” Fulton said.
“We have the ability to produce all the water we need for municipal purposes.”
Fulton said the city is in good shape with five concrete reservoirs built between 1918 and 1966.
They hold 18 million gallons drawn from the Elwha that’s made potable at the city’s water treatment plant, then piped to the reservoirs and city water faucets.
The river is flowing at 340 cubic feet per second (cfs) two months ahead of schedule, Fulton told City Council members last week.
Fulton said as it approaches 300 cfs, fish habitat is compromised — and the flow is expected to hit 150 to 180 cfs by September.
Elwha Dam was fully removed by March 2012, and the last of Glines Canyon Dam was destroyed in August 2014, opening up about 70 miles of river and tributary to once-legendary fish habitat.
The low river flows couldn’t have come at a worse time for Matt Beirne, the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe’s environmental coordinator.
“It is pretty lousy timing for drought conditions in the face of restoration,” he said last week.
Beirne said salmonids are stressed by water that’s warmer than tribal fish biologists have ever seen recorded at the mouth of the Elwha, 5 miles from where Elwha Dam blocked salmon migration for a century.
Temperatures have been as high as 24 degrees Celsius — 75 degrees Fahrenheit — and 19 degrees Celsius last week.
“I have never seen temperatures at 18 at this time of year,” Beirne said.
“When you get down there, and the feeling is like it would feel like bath water, it’s pretty phenomenal.
“It’s like nothing we’ve ever experienced.”
Salmonids in particular have exhibited signs of stress from warm water in nearshore areas and estuary ponds where the river empties into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
The young fish can’t be handled for prolonged periods. They roll over too easily.
And they are prone to catch diseases from other fish because there are fewer pools and they are in closer contact.
Water treatment plant
Elwha River water flows to the city’s water treatment plant to the reservoirs to the faucets of city residents.
Council members have been making efforts to limit water usage in light of historically low river flows for this time of year, the absence of Olympic Mountains snowpack from a dry winter and Gov. Jay Inslee’s declaration in March of a drought emergency for Clallam and Jefferson counties.
In May, council members rescinded the first year of a seasonal flat water rate they had approved to benefit gardeners and green-lawn proponents.
In June, they declared a Stage 2 drought emergency that called for voluntary measures and a city-sponsored public information campaign.
Fulton said last week there is a 50-50 chance council members will impose Stage 3 restrictions at their regular July 21 meeting.
In that case, the council would impose limited restrictions, with the option of imposing specific times for lawn and garden watering.
Fulton said he would not hazard a guess if the council will impose mandatory Stage 4 restrictions that would outlaw nonessential uses, including for garden and lawn watering.
If Stage 4 happens, it won’t be for lack of water for human consumption.
“That would be for the fish,” Fulton reiterated.
Fulton and Beirne said the tribe and the city have been working closely to monitor the river’s flow and its impact on returning salmon.
Dams not adequate
Robert Elofson, the tribe’s Elwha River fish restoration project manager, and Fulton said keeping the dams, and the reservoir-like lakes they created, would not have adequately addressed the drought.
Elwha Dam held back Lake Aldwell and Glines Canyon’s Lake Mills.
“They didn’t have the storage capacity to add to the flows for a long period of time,” Elofson said.
The gates on both reservoirs were just 20 feet high, he said.
As standing water, the warmer flow from Aldwell and Mills also could have added 15 degrees to the river temperature.
“There would have been a very good chance that it would cause disease to the salmon from the low flow,” Elofson said.
Fulton said the National Park Service employed a “run of the river” practice for water storage before the agency oversaw the largest dam-removal project in the nation’s history as part of a $325 million endeavor.
“That meant whatever volume of water went into the dams, the Park Service let that same amount of water out of the dams,” Fulton said.
“If the city was directly tapped into the dams, then it would be like a huge reservoir.
“We never were tapped into the dams.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
