SEQUIM — Fish in the Dungeness River and crops in the fields northeast of Sequim can have their water and drink it, too, thanks to the recently completed Sequim Prairie Reservoir Project.
The $1.07 million system, built near the intersection of Schmuck and Port Williams roads, will take less water from the river than in previous years, said state Salmon Recovery Board spokeswoman Susan Zemek.
Traditionally, farmers have diverted Dungeness River water into open ditches, where some of it evaporated. And whatever wasn’t used by farmers flowed into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, said Zemek.
Now a 4 million gallon capacity reservoir will store the overflow for later use.
And 23,000 feet of PVC pipe, laid in enclosed ditches, will distribute the water.
So less of it will evaporate, Zemek added. The old open ditches will no longer be used.
Risks reduced to species
The Dungeness River can get low in summer, she said, so the more efficient irrigation system will reduce risks to three threatened species — chinook salmon, summer chum and bull trout.
“Roughly this project will save about 81 gallons per hour,” compared with flows through the old ditches, Zemek said.
“That’s water that would have been taken out of the stream that will now stay in the stream.”
The river will keep more of its water during the season when the salmon are rearing their young, Zemek added.
Gary Smith, whose family has run the Maple View farm off Schmuck Road for three generations, shepherded the Sequim Prairie project through the funding and construction process.
Grants from the state Salmon Recovery Board and Washington Conservation Commission funded the reservoir, piping and a central pumping station, which is more energy-efficient than the previously scattered pumps.
The pump and pipes will distribute water to the Graysmarsh farm, Sequim Valley Ranch, Smith’s farm and the Shirkey lavender farm.
Hay, cauliflower, lavender, cabbage and corn are among the crops to be irrigated.
