Watering Matters: Belle of the Ball

The holiday season has begun. Christmas lights went up last week all over and our winter appetites are primed with turkey and pumpkin pie. Our credit cards have been sending subliminal messages to our brains to Pick Me! Pick Me! — or maybe bypassing the brain straight to the Compulsive Reflex Center. Remembrances of eggnog and champagne whet the appetite further …

And yet, outside the cozy homes and businesses of our little hamlet there’s a seasonal phenomenon that goes unnoticed by everyone (let me know if that’s an exaggeration). Partly that’s because it’s underground. Mostly.

The bathtub of gravel under Sequim gradually fills, inch by inch. It’s a cold bath, not especially inviting given the only essential oil is Valvoline … and much too dark (no candles) down there.

You may know that Sequim was built on an Ice Age floodplain of the ancestral Dungeness River, which flowed east to Washington Harbor before migrating north to the Gierin and Cassalery drainages, and so on. (Why it migrated north is a topic ripe for speculation. Let me know what you come up with.)

Floodplains by nature hold water only temporarily, which is why the “Sequim Prairie” had no streams and few wetlands before the irrigation system was built. We know this thanks to Government Land Office surveys and maps from 1859 (before irrigation) and 1914 (when many Eureka, Independence and Sequim Prairie ditches and laterals — and new wetlands — appear on maps).

For over a century, irrigators “primed” the ditches each spring by running water ahead of time and patching prominent leaks with clay or pipe. You easily can imagine that bathtub stayed pretty full through the summer in those days.

Indeed, the vast majority of homesteads and most development through the 1980s didn’t have to drill far to hit the water table, often installing 30-50-foot wells that tapped what turned out to be an unreliable source when those ditch leaks were fixed, irrigation became more efficient, and the number of farms dropped.

Bell Creek also reflects Sequim’s dynamic hydrologic and human history. It’s ephemeral now, flowing continuously only in winter, but was used — channelized, moved, etc. — until around the turn of the millennium to convey Dungeness River water to farms. Many people called Bell Creek a ditch, knowing or remembering that it would otherwise be dry all summer.

That a seasonal stream existed between U.S. Highway 101 and the wetlands below Washington Harbor Road before a channel was created for irrigation is doubtful; the 1859 map seems to indicate nothing there. But once a channel exists — and the bathtub is full — seepage and winter rains quickly find the path of least resistance and the creek flows once again.

Many people already know how well stormwater infiltrates in central Sequim and that aquifer recharge is important because it supplies our drinking water wells. For the City of Sequim, good water management means protecting quantity and quality of all water resources. Slowing down stormwater runoff allows more water to percolate and use of treatment methods assists the soil in filtering out pollution before it reaches our water supply.

To be continued … There’s much more to the remarkable history of Bell Creek, from its headwaters to its mouth at Washington Harbor — from humble beginnings to the Belle of the Ball! Stay tuned for the next “Water Matters” column for more of the story.

CONTEST!

Pick the right (or closest) date Bell Creek starts flowing and win a prize! Flash floods and short intermittent flow don’t count. Flow should persist for at least seven days in the channel along North Blake Avenue (note the staff gauge just upstream of the Friendship Pond).

Hint: for the 2013-2014 water year, continuous flow didn’t start until Jan. 19. The next year it was Dec. 9 and last year it was Nov. 15. Think about it and submit your entry ASAP to waterinfo@sequimwa.gov or 582-5710, including your name, phone number and date. (One guess per person and you must submit at least a week in advance of the right answer to be eligible!)

Geek Moment

For the 2017 water year (started Oct. 1), on Nov. 27, cumulative rainfall in Sequim = 4.1 inches; snowpack at the Dungeness SNOTEL station (4,000’ elev.) = 12 inches.

Dungeness River streamflow at Mile 11.8 = 900 cubic feet per second (cfs). Bell Creek streamflow at North Blake Avenue = 0 (dry); at the mouth = ~1.2 cfs.

Ann Soule is a licensed hydrogeologist immersed in the Dungeness watershed since 1990. She is now resource manager for City of Sequim. Reach her at columnists@sequimgazette.com or via her blog of Gazette articles @watercolumnsite.wordpress.com.