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OVERVIEW:illuminating local history
One of the basic benefits of civilization is that we can see and know more,collectively, than we can see and know individually. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is the physical reality that we do not get to live long enough to see, let alone understand, the long term effects of our actions as they unfold over time. In an attempt to overcome the limitations of our short lives, people have created libraries and archives, in which history can be stored and stories saved.
We all know that "history" is really just "his story" - the story told and recorded after the fact, by the survivor(s) and that there may well be a lot of critical information that was lost in translation. Someone else's story. Failures. Ideas that were tried but that did not acheive the desired objective. Whole collections of field notes that were lost, or simply not published.
So the idea of this WIKI is to provide a chance to collectively expose what we have individually uncovered in our local history to illustrate our ituation.
And since it is interactive, it provides a chance for each of us to show one another what we have found useful in the facts and fictions that we have collected.
Irondale, near the mouth of Chimacum CreekIrondale is a small rural community in Jefferson County that extends north from Hadlock toward the Jefferson County Airport, one of the three "trioritiy" communities in the Tri-Area, an area that has been the center of continuing controversy for over a decade, as Jefferson County attempts to address GMA's concurrency requirements for infrastructure and the IUGA/UGA designation required to allow response to near-term development pressure. 100 years ago, Irondale was the center of an enormous industrial activity: a steel mill.
 
Geology:
This section across the airport and generally follows the path of the aerial photo at the top of the page. In a perfect world there would be a huge pocket of gravel there that we could use for ASR, as an underground storage reservoir, but as you can see from this section, nobody who has been hired to drill a well along this section has found anything that leads us to believe that is the case. It should be noted that most wells in the region give little indication as to the underlying geology as the well-drillers rarely continue past a suitable water-bearing layer.
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To date, the most significant limits to growth in the area have not been septic-density rather than water-supply related:
To increase development density to include all platted lots a sewer system is needed.
Setting |
This has been one of the most contentious issues in the past 20 years.
There are two schools of thought about recharge. There is a deeply-held belief prevalent in the community that there is a river of snow-melt running down from the Olympic Mountains, that passes UNDER Discovery Bay and under the Quimper Peninsula that could be tapped if the well were drilled deep enough, and in the right place. The best collection of resources currently available for assessing the recharge in this area is contained in the WRIA 17 Report
This 3-color map shows calculated recharge levels for the area around Irondale
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hydrograph |
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USGS data |
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well profiles |
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Water:
| number of inches annually |
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| pipes, hydrants, reservoirs |
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service area boundaries
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exempt wells
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water rights
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conservation efforts
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Challenges |
Opportunities |
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Between 1983 and 1997 most houses in and around Irondale were served surface water from the City of Port Townsend's Municipal water supply system, the OGWS. This created a complex and politically charged environment, somewhat moderated by the Washington Department of Health mandated Coordinated Water System Plan, a negotiated document that attempted to define water purveyors' service areas and responsibilities.
The City held water rights to the Surface Water diverted from the Big and Little Quilcene Rivers and Supplemental Water Rights the groundwater from Sparling and Kivley wells near Port Hadlock, and water was diverted into the PUD's Ocean Grove system and the Tri Area System at a valve station at Four Corners. From Four Corners, potable water was piped to Irondale, Port Hadlock, Chimacum, Indian Island, Fort Flagler State Park and the Fisheries Research Lab near the the lighthouse at Fort Flagler. THis was served according to contracts, the primary contract was between the City and the Mill and the City and the Navy at Indian Island.
With the CT requirements of the SWA-SWTR updates, the City had to be concerned with maintaining a 99.99% kill of Giardia Lamblia prior to the first customer. This required increasing the disinfectant level in the system and many attempts were made to provide this via longer detention times in the pipeline from City Lake. Ultimately, the Tri Area was put on Groundwater from the Sparling Well as a way to deal with the complexities of the City's inability to cooperate with Jefferson County to regulate water demand w/o creating liability. |
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Salmon:
Life Cycle
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Species
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Historically, native coho, summer and fall chum, and steelhead were present in the creek. Currently coho, fall chum and steelhead are present in small numbers. Cutthroat trout, scupins, and stickalbacks are present in the creek as well. |
Year of the cycle
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Returning Adults And Released Fry 1989-2003
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Returning Adults
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Fry Releases From Wild Broodstock Supplementation Programs2 |
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Salmon Cr.
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Chimacum Cr.1
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Jimmy Come Lately Cr.
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Salmon Cr.
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Chimacum Cr.
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Jimmy Come Lately Cr.
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| 1989 |
194 |
0 |
173 |
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| 1990 |
245 |
0 |
63 |
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| 1991 |
172 |
0 |
125 |
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| 1992 |
433 |
0 |
616 |
19,200 |
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| 1993 |
452 |
0 |
110 |
44,000 |
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| 1994 |
161 |
0 |
15 |
2,000 |
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| 1995 |
591 |
0 |
223 |
38,808 |
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| 1996 |
894 |
0 |
30 |
62,000 |
28,788 |
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| 1997 |
834 |
0 |
61 |
71,821 |
36,840 |
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| 1998 |
1134 |
0 |
98 |
67,832 |
70,050 |
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| 1999 |
499 |
38 |
7 |
34,680 |
39,170 |
3,880 |
| 2000 |
846 |
52 |
55 |
90,435 |
73,300 |
25,900 |
| 2001 |
2638 |
903 |
283 |
90,980 |
79,750 |
54,515 |
| 2002 |
5516 |
864 |
56 |
118,347 |
57,300 |
20,887 |
| 2003 |
5651 |
558 |
446 |
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| (1) First return of summer chum adults from natural spawning in Chimacum Crk since mid 1980's occurred in 2002.
(2) Return of summer chum adults from fry releases started in 1995 for Salmon Crk, 1999 for Chimacum and 2002 for Jimmy Come Lately Crk.
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ESA listings
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Restoration Efforts
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In 1996/97, 28,000 fry were released into the Chimacum creek esturary |
Stewardship
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A local high school teacher, Ray Lowrie, coordinated an extensive survey of the creek throughout the 70s and early 80s. Late summer chum spawned above the estuary only in the first 6000 feet of the creek, diminishing substantially after the first 2000 feet near the location of the recent beaver dams where there was a log jam. If it was a barrier, recent failure of the beaver dams opens the possibility that chum may more fully utilize the creek. Coho spawned above the agricultural lands on both forks.
Poaching was extensive. A common activity for kids at the time was to "bash" fish with a machete. Various people recall bashing as many as 100 fish in a day. This activity was slowly curtailed as Ray brought kids into the fisheries class and they learned to count coup in new ways.
Fish runs became larger into the early eighties. Fall 1982 was the huge year for chum and coho. Ray’s class tagged 1000 coho at Center in two days. State fisheries estimated 1000 chum and 5000 coho, based on the idea that surveyors see 1/3 of dogs and 1/6 of silvers. Then disaster struck . . two major washouts occurred during the early eighties. In January 1983 the Irondale road washed out depositing 10,000-20,000 cubic yards of fill into the creek just above the chum spawning grounds. A reddish brown plume covered lower Port Townsend bay for weeks. A major slide occured in the upper basin toward eaglemount depositing another 15,000 cubic yards of material.
In August 1983, Chimacum students went down and looked things over. Sediment did not appear bad but on closer inspection the creek bed was very, very hard. Sediments had cemented the gravel together. Despite a substantial number of returning fish (though less than the previous year) there were no visible signs of redds that year. The second year after the wash out there were even less fish.
A thousand returning late summer chum were counted in 1982. Wild Olympic Salmon installed a weir in the creek during 1989, 1990 and 1991. After three years of monitoring the weir, the late summer chum run was determined to be extinct. Sediment is by far the most likely primary reason for the demise of the chum.
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Community:
| Irondale was developed at the beginning of the 20th century and between 1904 and 1915 it grew into a boom industry-based community with more residents than Port Townsend. The center of industry was the Pacific Steel mill. |
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Needless to say, this was pretty hard on fish. As you can see in the picture above, there appears to be eel grass (that the outbound salmon use as hiding cover) north of the estuary, but it is discontinuous.
Chimacum Creek fish stocks all but disappeared prior to community involvement, spearheaded by Ray Lowry and his fisheries science program at Chimacum High School, which ran a hatchery and worked to keep the fish running.
Challenges |
Opportunities |
The site of the old ironworks and the logdump/log processing facility has been the focus of extensive rehabilitation.
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Much of the estuary and lower reach of the creek are now in conservancy
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"ANCIENT" HISTORY (PRE-GMA)
Tribal History
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Federal Water
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State Water
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County Water
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City Water System
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Between 1983 and 1997 most houses in and around Irondale were served surface water from the City of Port Townsend's Municipal water supply system, the OGWS. This created a complex and politically charged environment, somewhat moderated by the Washington Department of Health mandated Coordinated Water System Plan, a negotiated document that attempted to define water purveyors' service areas and responsibilities. The City held water rights to the Surface Water diverted from the Big and Little Quilcene Rivers and Supplemental Water Rights the groundwater from Sparling and Kivley wells near Port Hadlock, and water was diverted into the PUD's Ocean Grove system and the Tri Area System at a valve station at Four Corners.
From Four Corners, potable water was piped to Irondale, Port Hadlock, Chimacum, Indian Island, Fort Flagler State Park and the Fisheries Research Lab near the the lighthouse at Fort Flagler. THis was served according to contracts, the primary contract was between the City and the Mill and the City and the Navy at Indian Island.
With the CT requirements of the SWA-SWTR updates, the City had to be concerned with maintaining a 99.99% kill of Giardia Lamblia prior to the first customer. This required increasing the disinfectant level in the system and many attempts were made to provide this via longer detention times in the pipeline from City Lake. Ultimately, the Tri Area was put on Groundwater from the Sparling Well as a way to deal with the complexities of the City's inability to cooperate with Jefferson County to regulate water demand w/o creating liability.
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PUD Water System
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Since 1999 drinking water in Irondale has been provided from the PUD's Sparling Well, located near the intersection of Kennedy Road and Rhody Drive.
This well is __deep and the water and is characterized as _ and requires expensive treatment to remove sulphur, iron and color. However, the static level in the well is falling and there are many in the community who believe that this well is in direct continuity with Chimacum Creek.
Therefore, the PUD's plan to serve water from this well to Marrowstone Island was appealed because the "out of basin transfer" is expected to adversely affect fish in Chimacum Creek. |
RECENT HISTORY (POST-GMA)
Agriculture/Permaculture/Sustainability
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GMA Planning History
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Major plannig efforts have been repeatedly focused on this community. In the late 1990's Guy Rudolph, citizen activist, spearheaded an effort to incorporate the Tri-Area as the City if Irondale.
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Historical Photographs
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Local Hisory Archives
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The Guy Rudolph Collection at the Jefferson County Historical Society is the most complete repository of the history of this area.
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Habitat Restoration
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Affordable Housing
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The Irondale area is characterized by low income and provides the majority of the County's "Affordable" housing at presttn.
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Future:
Future Drawings and Plans
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Future Population Projections
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Voices of Kids
Kid's vision
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Kid's Projects
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What an individual can do? Individual Stewardship Opportunities- conservation, rain water collection, Get out in the watershed (Track the Dragon) when can you see
salmon?
| conservation |
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| rain water collection |
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| Get out in the watershed (Track the Dragon) |
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| where and when can you see salmon? |
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| Individual Stewardship Opportunities |
Chimacum Creek fish stocks all but disappeared prior to community involvement, spearheaded by Ray Lowry and his fisheries science program at Chimacum High School, which ran a hatchery and worked to keep the fish running. This was picked up and institutionalized by two organizations Wild Olympic Salmon and North Olympic Salmon Coalition and privatized by NWI.
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Data collection: rainfall, returning fish, indicators
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What a community can do?
| Institutional Stewardship Opportunities |
WSU Waterwatchers
North Olympic Salmon Coalition provides training and finds funding to do major habitat restoration projects, including stream remeandering
In 1989 Wild Olympic Salmon began installing small off-stream hatcheries, and in 1997 Olympic Peninsula Foundation began a "Jobs for the Environment" certificate program that involved fencing the creek to keep cows out, in an effort to reduce BOD, which had been a limiting factor in Salmon, In 199_ North Olympic Salmon Coalition began replanting the creek and in 200_ NWI began restoration on ___ Creek, a tributary.
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LUD - Community Storage, Community Sewer
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Ad Hoc improvement groups
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Challenges |
Opportunities |
Late summer chum went extinct on Chimacum creek in the late 1980's. Concerned citizens, fisherman, and environmentalists banded together in an attempt to raise consciousness of the situation and build a community of support for the salmon. In 1991 a volunteer project was started to reintroduce summer chum to the creek.
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The first returning adults from this effort returned in September 1999. This effort has been a cause celebre and inspiration for many people, and has slowly gone from being tolerated by fisheries to held up as a model.
It is an attempt to be good stewards of the watershed in our midst, to act locally in the preservation of a way of life.
http://olympus.net/edu/wos/chimacum.htm
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Resources:
What are your thoughts?
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| What are your neighbors thinking? |
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| Discussion group/Surveys on line? |
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How to get involved?
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Let others hear your voice?
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| Ideas we need to add here? |
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