BY PEPPER FISHER
Sequim – Clallam County officials presented an update Tuesday evening on the Off-Channel Reservoir planned along the Dungeness River south of Sequim. About 150 residents attended the event at the Guy Cole Center to learn the latest on the 400-acre project that will store water from the river when the flow is plentiful and send water downriver when the flow is low. This is intended to benefit late summer salmon runs, feed the aquifers, and improve access to irrigation for landowners in the area.
Steve Gray, Deputy Director of Public Works reminded attendees that the land has been acquired, thanks to a land transfer from the state Department of Natural Resources. He said public access to the land will continue as the planning process moves ahead.
Cleanup of an old dump site on the land is expected to occur early next year, and then a 3-year groundwater testing operation will begin to meet state Ecology requirements.
Gray presented 4 possible reservoir design options that are still being evaluated, including one that would store the water in two separate but connected ponds. Responding to previous public input and seismic work that was done last year, he said all 4 options include digging the reservoirs deeper to reduce the height of the berms that would surround them, and moving the ponds further south, or uphill, closer to the BPA power lines. We asked Gray which design was getting the most traction.
“From working with our stakeholders and partners and where the county is, I think the bookends, the E1, which is a two cell which basically, wouldn’t create any new impacts into the BPA easement, and the E4, which is the larger, not an irregular boundary, are probably the two options that are most being looked at. There might be variations as we go forward. So I think that’s what we’re looking at.”
Something new Tuesday night was the presence of FEMA representatives. The County has applied for a $30 million grant from FEMA to pay for building the reservoir, and this meeting kicked of FEMA’s 30-day scoping and environmental review process.
“I think the key takeaway is, they’re initiating the environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act. They’re doing their due diligence. They want to just basically get as much comment from agencies, tribes, and the public to kind of outline where there’s concerns of those potential impacts, and they would evaluate that input they received, and then they would prepare a, after that 30-day period, they would prepare a draft environmental document, and then they’d have a digital public comment period on that document as part of that process.”
Gray says the big grant from FEMA is not a done a deal, but he’s encouraged by the fact that they have begun their 30 day review process. Gray wanted to remind residents that this project will be much more than a reservoir. It will also be a 400-acre County park.
“One of the things we did announce is, one of things the County will need to do is to update our County Parks Plan for that 400-acre facility. And so, County Parks is in the process of updating their planning. I suspect they will be incorporating this new part of the county land acquisition into that.”
Learn more here.