PORT ANGELES — Olympic National Park officials are advising the public to use caution on the Olympic Discovery Trail between Kacee Way and the Elwha River through mid-April as a contractor delivers equipment and materials to the Elwha Water Treatment Plant west of Port Angeles.
Park spokeswoman Barb Maynes said trucks will make 15 to 20 round trips within the next month to make corrections to the plant, which provides initial treatment for the city’s industrial water supply, the Nippon Paper Industries USA Inc. mill, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife’s fish-rearing channel and the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe’s fish hatchery.
The plant’s intake system became clogged with organic material when the Elwha River swelled with rainwater last fall.
Macnak Construction LLC of Lakewood was awarded a $1.37 million contract to make the corrections to the diversion pump station intake at the plant.
Off-site fabrication has been ongoing since mid-February. On-site work will begin this week.
Finished by mid-April
The modifications should be finished by mid-April, Maynes said.
Demolition of Glines Canyon Dam has been put on hold until the work is complete.
The Elwha Water Treatment Plant is one of several mitigation projects built to protect people and fish from impacts associated with high sediment flows from the removal of the river’s two dams.
Removal of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams commenced in September 2011.
Elwha Dam was gone by last March, and just 30 percent of Glines Canyon Dam remains.
The $325 million river restoration project is still scheduled to be completed well before the contract ends in September 2014, Maynes said.