NEAH BAY — A system to turn salt water into drinking water is heading toward the Makah reservation on Friday.
The 15,000-pound system will be carried by truck from a Navy facility in Port Hueneme, Calif., and is expected to arrive as early as Monday, said Patty Manuel, the tribe’s assistant general manager.
Indian Health Services and the Army are working together in arranging the transport, said Mathew Martinson, a civil engineer with Indian Health Service’s Portland area office.
The system is one of two designed by the U.S. Office of Naval Research for response to natural and manmade disasters, Martinson said.
The system, which is powered by diesel generators, can purify up to 100,000 gallons of salt water per day, and 200,000 gallons of fresh water.
The Makah tribe will use the system to recover from a water shortage created by a lack of rain and high visitor traffic over the summer, Tribal Chairman Ben Johnson said.
Water restrictions
The Tribal Council declared a state of emergency and put strict water restrictions in place on Aug. 29 after its public works department notified it that less than two days worth of drinking water — about 625,000 gallons — were left in the tribe’s treatment facility.
In addition, the tribe’s two main water sources, the Waatch River and Educkett Reservoir, were reported to be at critically low levels.
The strict water restrictions on the 1,800 residents of Neah Bay have kept the treatment plant’s water level at about 625,000 gallons, said Patty Manuel, the tribe’s assistant general manager.
“We’ve gained a little bit more, but we’re still not out of the woods yet,” Manuel said.
Residents of Neah Bay use about 350,000 gallons of water a day, which has been reduced to 200,000 gallons since the water restrictions were put into place, said Julie Johnson, the tribe’s director of intergovernmental relations.