PORT ANGELES — Think “west” and you think “wet” — the west ends of Clallam and Jefferson counties and their wet climate, that is.
But for all the region’s rainfall, water is as contentious a topic as it is in the relatively arid Dungeness Valley.
Whereas the water debate from Port Angeles eastward has focused on real estate development and irrigation, disputes along the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean center on logging, fishing and farming.
They’re coming to a head in West End Water Resource Inventory Areas 19 and 20, where plans soon will be unveiled to conserve salmon in the Lyre-Hoko and Sol Duc-Hoh valleys, respectively.
Meanwhile, in Jefferson County the Department of Ecology is preparing to set rules for WRIA 17, the Quilcene-Snow watershed.
Ecology will host an open house in the Fort Worden State Park USO Hall at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Planning meetings are scheduled for Oct. 5 in WRIA 19 and Oct. 6 in WRIA 20.
On their face, all WRIA plans are similar in that they seek to balance the needs of fish with those of people, including anticipated growth.
