City of Sequim officials recently announced they plan to keep water conservation practices voluntary for the time being, but may impose outdoor watering restrictions this year if water supply conditions worsen.
The announcement comes about a month after the Department of Ecology declared a drought emergency in 12 counties — including Clallam County and the Dungeness River basin where the City of Sequim receives water — because of early snowpack melt, lack of spring rain and low stream flows.
“The city has been encouraging water conservation to city residents especially during summer months,” Sequim resource analyst Meggan Uecker said, “but discussions with local water stakeholders prompted a more resounding notification of this important messaging.”
Fishery and irrigation managers are now coordinating to maximize stream flows to assist pink salmon migrating up the Dungeness River due to low stream flows, she reports.
Sequim will continue to monitor drought conditions via drought.gov and the Department of Ecology, Uecker said.
The Department of Commerce and National Oceanic and Atmospheric (NOAA) reports that dry conditions could continue in the coming months, as most of Western Washington and Western Oregon are at about a 40-50 percent chance of “leaning below” average of seasonal precipitation for September through November.
In May, Jeff Marti, water resources planner with the state Department of Ecology, told the Peninsula Daily News no drought conditions were forecasted for the Olympic Peninsula this summer due to a healthy snowpack, but a warm summer could mean early melt-off and water shortages in late summer, which the area is experiencing now.
Department of Ecology officials report Washington state received just 49 percent of its usual rainfall in June, and the state’s May and June were ranked as the fourth and 11th driest months since 1895.
Drought discussion
In an email, Marti said it’s difficult to predict when the drought will end.
Since 2001, all or some of Clallam County has been officially in a drought seven times, including this year, but he cautions that drought declarations include a hydro-meteorological component and a consideration of potential hardship and impacts, “so the equation is part objective, part subjective.”
Washington’s current declaration is set to expire at the end of June 2024, Marti said, but conditions are likely to ameliorate.
“But we need to rebuild the moisture stored in our watersheds, in the form of soil moisture and snowpack,” he said.
“So we’ll be watching conditions very closely this fall, winter and into next spring to see if we will have a good water supply recovery year, or whether things will continue to be challenging.”
The El Niño climate pattern developing means the winter will likely be warmer and possibly drier, which could be a bad combination for snowpack and water supply, Marti said.
“But El Niño can also be more of a nudge than a shove for the PNW climate, and a strong El Niño can mean average or near average moisture,” he said.
However, Marti added, “we probably won’t know for sure until it’s directly on top of us or in our rear view mirror.”
Currently, the U.S. Drought Monitor has portions of Clallam and Jefferson counties listed as “D0”(“abnormally dry”) and and D1 (“moderate drought”), meaning there’s an increased fire danger, river flows are low, a possibility for dust storms, and the ski season/visitations are shortened.
Port Angeles
Last year, the City of Port Angeles implemented outdoor water restrictions in early October, citing ongoing decreasing stream flows in the Elwha River where the city draws its water.
Over the weekend, a 24-inch water main was leaking at the rate of about 150 gallons per minute at a connection between the city’s water treatment facility and its reservoirs. The leak led city officials to urge residents to limit water usage.
No provisions have been put in place in the Sequim area by Clallam Public Utility District in its Carlsborg or south Sequim districts, but on Aug. 21 they requested water users in Gales Addition, Mount Angeles and Monroe Water Systems in east Port Angeles area begin voluntary water conservation measures due to a Stage 2 Water Shortage declared by the City of Port Angeles.
These water systems rely on purchased water supplied from the City of Port Angeles, and the city declared a Stage II Water Shortage, and prior to the water main leak was encouraging increased voluntary conservation, according to PUD officials.
The PUD also has a Stage 2 alert in the Upper Fairview, Port Angeles area; a Stage 3 requiring conservation in Clallam Bay/Sekiu, and a Stage 4 alert restricting outdoor water and asking for indoor conservation in the Island View Water System in Sekiu.
Sequim
According to the City of Sequim’s 2022 Water System Preliminary Plan for 2023-2032, city staff set a conservation goal to reduce the average day demand for water by about 100,000 gallons and reduce the maximum day demand by about 270,000 gallons.
Sequim officials reported in September 2022 that distribution system leakage dropped about 4.6 percent in eight years, going from a rate of nearly 14 percent in 2014 to 9.1 percent last year.
They also estimated that repairing and replacing water lines saved about 90 million gallons of water.
For drought tolerance, city staff report Sequim is well-prepared because its water supply wells are deep and come from different sources, residents already practice conservation in the summer, city staff monitor aquifer levels, city resources used reclaimed water, and they work with Dungeness watershed stakeholders to manage water resources.
The city’s water comes from wells and not surface streams, Uecker said, but conservation “can make a difference because of underground connections between groundwater and surface water.”
To promote conservation and reduce water usage, city officials encourage the following:
• Stop watering grass,
• Use a shut-off nozzle in a garden, avoid over-watering with sprinklers, and irrigate early or late hours and not every day,
• Don’t leave hoses running,
• Mulch your garden to reduce water loss,
• Wash your car at a facility that recycles its water,
• Avoid draining swimming pools or do it infrequently,
• Wash only full loads in the clothes washer and dishwasher,
• Use low-flow shower heads and toilets at 1.6 gallons or less,
• Compost rather than using a garbage disposal,
• Fix leaks
For more water saving tips, click here or email waterinfo@sequimwa.gov.
Image courtesy NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric (NOAA) report dry conditions could continue in the coming months as most of Western Washington and Western Oregon are at about a 40-50 percent chance of “leaning below” average of seasonal precipitation for September through November.
