PORT ANGELES — The city’s Stage 4 water emergency is expected to continue until tonight while Peabody Heights Reservoir is filled, a city official said Wednesday.
A broken section of concrete water main near Olympic National Park headquarters was replaced and repairs completed Wednesday afternoon, Public Works Director Glenn Cutler said.
The pipe was being tested and checked for leaks late Wednesday, he said.
If the repair of the 30-inch main was complete, refilling the 7 million gallon reservoir was expected to begin Wednesday evening, Cutler said.
The Stage 4 water emergency — the second-highest level of restriction — will continue until the reservoir refills through this afternoon, he said.
The City Council declared the Stage 4 emergency in a special session Tuesday afternoon, about 12 hours after the 44-year-old pipeline ruptured and sent an estimated 3.8 million gallons out the national park headquarters’ driveway, onto Park Avenue and through 10 homes to Vashon Avenue en route to Peabody Creek.
The amount of water lost would fill 19 William Shore Memorial Pools.
Mandatory restrictions
A Stage 4 water alert requires mandatory outdoor restrictions and indoor conservation.
Mandatory outdoor restrictions mean no car or boat washing, no lawn watering and no washing down paved areas, and broken or leaking pipes must be fixed within 48 hours.
Cutler said the public’s “exceptional” response to the city’s water dilemma prevented Stage 5 water rationing, which the City Council had authorized in case the reservoir level had fully fallen.
The Clallam County Public Utility District — which gets some of its wholesale water from the city — declared an equivalent Stage 3 water shortage for its Gales and Fairview systems that serve a 23-square-mile unincorporated area east of the city limit.
The alert will remain in effect until the city’s declares its water emergency over, according to PUD General Manager Dennis Bickford.