With Elwha running low, city calls for conservation

PORT ANGELES — The City of Port Angeles has declared a Stage III water alert that implement outdoor watering restrictions.

“In response to continuously decreasing flows in the Elwha River, our primary source of drinking water,” the city said in a news release issued Friday morning, “City Manager Nathan West has declared a Stage III Water Shortage.

“This means that the City’s water supplies are critically impacted and immediate restrictions on outdoor water usage must be implemented.”

A Stage III alert may be declared if the Elwha River drops below 300 cubic feet per second for more than five days, city officials have said.

“We do appreciate our citizens’ help,” Mike Healy, interim Public Works director, said Friday. “It basically is, use water smartly because the river is low right now. We have enough water to sustain our folks but we don’t have water to waste.”

Healy said the Elwha River has been running low for the past week, and that no rain is expected in the near future.

“What we’re seeing now is the extent of any snowmelt from last winter,” Healy said. “The water supply from the upper elevations is reducing dramatically.”

Effective Friday at 8 a.m., the city prohibited the following non-essential uses of water:

• Washing sidewalks, walkways, driveways, parking lots, patios, and other exterior paved areas by direct hosing, except as may be necessary to prevent or eliminate materials dangerous to public health and safety.

• Escape of water through breaks or leaks within the customer’s plumbing or private distribution system for any period of time beyond which such break or leak should reasonably have been discovered and corrected. It shall be presumed that a period of 48 hours after the customer discovers a leak or break or receives notice from the City of such leak or break, whichever occurs first, is a reasonable time in which to correct the same.

• Non-commercial washing of privately owned motor vehicles, trailers, and boats, except from a bucket or hose using a shutoff nozzle for quick rinses.

• Lawn sprinkling and irrigation which allows water to run off or overspray the lawn area. Every customer is deemed to have knowledge of and control over his or her lawn sprinkling and irrigation at all times.

• Sprinkling and irrigation of lawns, ground cover, or other plants, between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. or an ODD – EVEN rotation schedule. This means property addresses ending in odd numbers are permitted to sprinkle on odd-numbered days, and property addresses ending in even numbers are permitted to sprinkle on even-numbered days.

Additional guidance will be released in the coming days, the city said.

The city has restrictions for five stages of water shortages laid out in the municipal code. A Stage III shortage is listed as a “critical” water shortage with limited outdoor restrictions.

Penalties for violating water restrictions range from a warning on the first violation, to the installation of a flow restriction device, water shutoff and fines upon subsequent violations.

A Stage IV water alert with mandatory outdoor restrictions and indoor conservation may be declared if the Elwha falls below 200 CFS for more than five days.

A Stage V water shortage or “regional disaster” would mean water rationing, and emergency water distribution for customers without water.

Citing historically low levels in local rivers, the National Park Service closed recreational fishing on over a dozen rivers including the Ozette; Bogachiel; South Fork Calawah; Sol Duc; North Fork Sol Duc; Dickey; Quillayute; Hoh; South Fork Hoh; Queets; Salmon and Quinault Rivers, including East Fork, North Fork, Main Stem. The Cedar; Goodman; Kalaloch and Mosquito Creeks within Olympic National Park were also closed Thursday morning.

Also Thursday, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife announced closures of salmon and all game fishing in “most coastal rivers and tributaries” to begin today.

Fishing is open in Grays Harbor’s East Bay; Willapa Bay, and the Chehalis River downstream of Fuller Bridge, Fish and Wildlife said.

The Lower Willapa and Naselle rivers also remain open but for hatchery chinook and hatchery coho only.

Reporter Peter Segall can be reached at psegall@soundpublishing.com.

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