PORT ANGELES — City officials declared a stage 2 water emergency Wednesday, urging increased voluntary conservation.
Harsher measures may be coming later this year, but city officials said residents are not in danger of running out of drinking water.
The alert was issued in light of reduced water flow in the Elwha River, and mandatory water restrictions inside the city limits are possible later this year, Public Works and Utilities Director Craig Fulton said.
“We’ll let [the public] know that snowpack levels are at unprecedented lows and that that impacts the [Elwha River] watershed and the volume of water coming down the river,” Fulton said Wednesday.
“The river will not run dry, and we will not be running out of any drinking water.”
But fish habitat will be hit hard by the drought, Fulton predicted.
The stage 2 declaration was announced by Fulton and City Manager Dan McKeen at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
Fulton updated the council on the ongoing drought, saying it could have a serious impact on migrating Elwha River salmon.
“I’m going on a worst-case scenario for the summer,” Fulton told council members.
“My assumption is based on no rain for the next several months.”
In declaring a stage 2 emergency — a lesser public-education-oriented stage 1 emergency has been in effect — a serious water shortage was announced.
An Olympic Mountains snowpack that normally feeds the Elwha River that is now zero inches was reduced to nothing a month earlier than usual, Fulton said Wednesday.
“Immediate voluntary reductions in consumption are necessary,” according to the city ordinance under which the heightened emergency status was declared.
Residents will be urged to voluntarily reduce consumption through an intensive public education campaign that will include fliers in utility bills and posters in public places.
“Stage 2 is pretty much preparation and education so it’s no shock to people when we go to stage 3 and stage 4,” Fulton said Wednesday.
The city obtains its water from two sources: the Ranney Well, which is fed by the Elwha River from 60 feet below the surface and routes water directly to the city’s water treatment plant, and a National Park Service intake structure that also draws water from the Elwha, but from the river’s surface.
Fulton said the low water flow will allow water temperatures to heat up, reducing oxygen levels and providing a breeding environment for bacteria and parasites harmful to salmon, he said.
Fulton said he expects the city to enact stage 3 emergency water restrictions by mid-August, when the City Council could establish specified days — possibly odd days of the week for odd-numbered addresses and even days for even-numbered addresses — for sprinkling lawns and garden.
Flow is likely to hit 300 cubic feet per second (cfs) from mid-July to mid-August, when the harsher stage 3 restrictions may be enacted.
Water flows under 300 cfs starts having impacts on water temperatures and oxygen levels, Fulton said.
A stage 4 emergency declaration, possible if river flow shrinks to 200 cfs for a sustained number of days, would entail mandatory cutbacks.
Fulton told council members that river flow will “very likely” go below 200 cfs, making the Elwha dangerously shallow for fish swimming upstream.
Fire Chief Ken Dubuc said Tuesday that as part of the public education campaign and to prevent fires during dry conditions, citizens will be urged to exercise caution if they choose to set off fireworks on July Fourth.
The City Council has made this July Fourth the last Independence Day holiday that citizens will be allowed to use personal fireworks in the city limits.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
