PORT ANGELES – The city of Port Angeles is expected to issue new water restrictions this week.
Effective tomorrow, the city manager will bump up the city’s water shortage response to “Level Two”.
That calls for voluntary reductions in all water use across the city.
Since mid-June, the city has been at “Level One”, which called for the city to internally begin preparing for a possible water shortage.
City public works and utilities director Thomas Hunter says stream flows on the Elwha River have reached serious, but not yet critically low levels. The city gets its water from the river.
In a memo to the city council, Hunter writes because of a lower than average snowpack and we’re now in the driest months of summer, he doesn’t expect stream flows to return to normal until later in the fall.
The city council would have to approve any further water restrictions beyond “Level Two”.