A few communities on Prince of Wales Island are facing complications with their city water supplies in the aftermath of this month’s snowstorms.
The city of Craig issued a water conservation notice earlier today. Director of Public Works Oliver Lewis says they’ve reached the bottom 20 percent of the tank, which is a record low.
“We’re not trying to cry wolf, but we are to the point where we need the public’s help to conserve water the best that they can, so that it doesn’t get to mission critical,” Lewis said.
Lewis says the public works department has been barely keeping up with demand since the freezing temperatures hit earlier this month.
“Because of the way that we harvest our water and treat it, it is not meant to be stored for a long time,” he said. “So in essence, we make water, we use it. We make water, we use it. So we’re always kind of on that cycle of making it and getting rid of it so that we can make more clean water.”
Lewis says when pipes freeze and then thaw, leaks can manifest. He suspects that’s where a lot of the water usage is from. He urges people to turn off their water when it’s not freezing, be cautious of leaks, and call City Hall to get them fixed as soon as possible.
“A lot of these communities get hit by what I call death by a thousand cuts,” he said. “Basically, if everybody’s leaking a half gallon of water a minute, and we have 640 hookups here in Craig, that’s a massive amount of water, and it’s hard for us to keep up.”
The worst case scenario, Lewis says, is that the city will run out of water. If that happens, it could take up to 48 hours to rebuild the supply to turn the water back on. He expects to have updates on water levels after the holiday.
Klawock, which has its own separate water supply, is actively working to avoid a water conservation notice. Klawock City Administrator Anna Guthrie says last weekend’s storm caused runoff that clogged the tank. She expects it will be fixed this week, but the city will keep the community updated with flyers, texts and Facebook posts.
