Park awards contract upgrades on Elwha Water Treatment Plant

Published 11:13 am Thursday, March 20, 2014

The National Park Service has awarded Macnak Construction LLC of Lakewood a $1.36 million contract to make upgrades to the diversion pump station intake at the Elwha Water Treatment Plant.

Off-site fabrication begins immediately, with on-site work scheduled to begin in mid-March. New intake screens are expected to be operational by early April.

The EWTP is one of several mitigation projects built to protect Elwha River water users from impacts associated with high sediment flows related to removing two dams on the Elwha River.

The Elwha plant provides initial treatment of the industrial water supply for the City of Port Angeles, Nippon Paper Company, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s fish-rearing channel and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe’s fish hatchery.

To allow Macnak employees to complete upgrades to the water treatment plant, further work to lower Glines Canyon Dam has been put on hold. A new work schedule for dam removal has not yet been finalized, but the project is scheduled for completion well before the contract ends in September 2014.

The Elwha Dam is completely gone; only about 30 percent of the Glines Canyon Dam remains.

For more information, visit the Olympic National Park website at www.nps.gov/olym/naturescience/elwha-ecosystem-restoration.htm.