PORT ANGELES — A possible compromise in the ongoing water supply dispute between the city and Clallam County Public Utility District No. 1 will be reviewed by the two boards this week.
“We’ve been talking and exchanging ideas. Hopefully, we are close to signing an agreement,” said City Manager Michael Quinn.
The city of Port Angeles has given Clallam PUD until July 9 to sign a water supply contract that includes a controversial no-protest annexation agreement clause. If the contract is not signed by that date, the water supply will be shut off on July 12.
The city supplies about 40 percent of the water to the district’s Gales and Fairview water systems that serve the city’s eastern urban growth area.
Quinn and Clallam PUD General Manager Dennis Bickford both confirmed a potential compromise has been reached in the dispute.
Clallam PUD water customers in the city’s eastern urban growth area still would have to sign the no-protest annexation agreements to receive new or expanded water service.
But those agreements would not become valid until the city installs a sewer line in the unincorporated area east of the Port Angeles city limits. The contract would last until the end of 2005, when the current disputed contract was to have expired.
Quinn and Clallam PUD General Manager Dennis Bickford were exchanging draft contracts Friday afternoon to be included in the meeting packets for their respective boards.
Clallam PUD’s board of commissioners meets at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at the district’s headquarters, 2431 East U.S. Highway 101 in Port Angeles.
