STUDY UNDER WAY FOR WATER PLANT AFTER DAMS COME DOWN

By Brian Gawley Peninsula Daily News August 27,2001

Port Angeles, WA---When the Elwha Dams are removed, the city will need a new filtration system to make sure its water meets federal drinking water standards.

What filtration process that plant will use is still to be decided. The City Council, last week, authorized a consultant for Olympic National Park to test two filtration processes for effectiveness and operating costs.

“The water quality will change when the dams are removed, both because of the removal itself and sediment behind the dams,” said city public works director, Glenn Cutler.

The dams are slated for removal in 2004.

The city’s water supply comes from the Ranney Collector well on the Elwha River’s east bank. The Olympic National Park is building a new water filtration plan as part of the federal legislation authorizing the dam’s removal, Cutler said.

The park’s consultant has settled on two potential water treatment methods. However, before the state health department will allow design of the plant, the proposed filtration method must be, “pilot tested,” he said. Park and city officials need to find out the operating costs and how affective the two methods are at removing sediments and compounds, Cutler said.

City officials traveled to Colorado this month to view operating examples of two competing conventional filtration methods.

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