OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — A planned power outage in the Elwha River Valley on Wednesday has not been cleared with the utility that serves the area, Clallam County Public Utility District officials said Monday.
Olympic National Park announced last week that an outage would occur from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 26 to allow workers to dismantle old transmission lines and poles from the former Elwha River dams.
“No power outage been coordinated with the PUD,” Clallam County PUD spokesman Michael Howe said.
The PUD provides electricity to customers in Elwha Valley and the rest of Clallam County except for those living in the city of Port Angeles.
Olympic National Park spokeswoman Barb Maynes said Barnard Construction, the National Park Service contractor for the $27 million removal of the 108-foot Elwha and 210-foot Glines Canyon dams, was supposed to coordinate the outage with the PUD.
“The National Park Service gave approval to the contractor for them to have a power outage within Olympic National Park and within the Elwha Valley,” Maynes said late Monday.
“It’s Barnard’s job to coordinate that with the PUD, so the contractor maybe hasn’t done that yet.”
Project manager Brian Krohmer of Barnard Construction Co. was not immediately available for comment Monday night.
Check back on www.peninsuladailynews.com today for updates on whether there will be an outage.
Wednesday’s planned blackout was one of several that will occur as crews remove power lines and poles at the dams over the next two weeks.
Removal of electricity transmission lines began Oct. 14.