BY PEPPER FISHER
Sequim – Sequim Public Works Director Paul Bucich submitted a presentation at this week’s City Council meeting that addressed water issues, and the concerns many residents have about whether there is enough water to go around, now and in the coming decades.
The short answer: Yes, there’s more than enough water available for the City’s wells.
“One of the things I wanted to speak to is the common complaint that the City doesn’t know how much water is actually in the aquifers. To some degree, the answer that is, “Well, no one does.” But the more refined answer is that we have a pretty good idea that our extraction from these aquifers is not causing an impact on the aquifer. So the aquifer can deliver the water that we’re looking to take out of it.”
Bucich said that over the last 3 years, the average amount of water used per day is a little over a million gallons. As demand grows, so does the amount of water the City draws. But there’s a limit to how much water Sequim is entitled to. He spoke about the City’s water rights.
“We want to know, “Okay, so when are we getting close to utilizing our full water rights?” The evaluation shows that by the year 2045 we’ll be at 75% capacity of our water right utilization. Industry standards are that when you hit 80 percent of your volume and capacity is when you need to start planning for new improvements. Looking at projected growth, historic production, I think we are safe to say that we have sufficient water resources to handle development for the next 30 plus years.”
Bucich acknowledged that no one knows what the impacts of climate change will be on the City’s aquifers. He said the amount of water coming through could change, and the timing of when it comes through could change. That, he said, will be monitored from year to year.
But the City has an ace in the hole when it comes to ground water. That’s the deep well they recently drilled at Dr. Standard Park on Silberhorn Road. It’s the newest of 4 wells at that location. And although the City hasn’t begun to draw water from it, and is still awaiting the permits it needs to do so, the deep well is expected to have more capacity than the other 3 wells combined.
City Engineer Nick Dostie told KONP in 2024 that the deep well is seen as a hedge against drought.
“The idea is, given how seasonal the first aquifer is, and people’s concerns with drought, and to be more drought resistant, the City has pursued this well to go deeper to a more reliable, less seasonal source, and also make it so that should there be any sort of issues with the first aquifer, which feeds off of the Dungeness River, we can take those wells offline and use our new well, and have no difference in capacity when it comes to drawing water from the ground.”