Here is the response I received.
You ask some excellent questions. We are working to find another source of
funding for the Hoh River gage, and hopefully we'll be successful. Part of
the answer is the reality of the needs and demands for water data and
information, and funding sources.
The Tolt River has a lot of gages for Seattle City Water's management of
the Tolt Reservoir system and downstream impacts. The same for the Sultan
River and Snohomish County PUD's operation. Some of the gages are also
(co-)funded by King County and other agencies for flood monitoring or
fisheries purposes.
The Olympic Peninsula has always been difficult to find cooperators outside
the utilities for the Skokomish, Wynoochee and Elwha Rivers, and the
fisheries agencies, the Department of Ecology and the coastal Tribes
(Quinault, Hoh, etc.). We haven't been able to get local agencies into
agreements for water resources data except the northeast rivers (Dungeness,
Quilicene, etc.).
Also, we have only limited control of the gages we operate, we have to
establish a need in the public interest and compete for a limited pot of
monies, or find a cooperator to fund or share the costs of the gage(s).
The Hoh River gage was funded by the National Park Service along with a
network of gages in the Hoh basin until their interest concluded (project)
where the Hoh Tribe picked up the funding.
Unfortunately, they weren't able to commit the funds this year as promised
(agreement). So we're left to find alternative funding for this year and
search for a new cooperator for next year, or hope the Tribe agrees to
monies next year. That's Bill Wiggins' job as Data Chief.
Please let me now if you have more questions.
--Scott--
Scott M. Knowles "Opinions expressed are entirely my own."
sknowles@usgs.gov
Hydrologist, MS-Geography
"All things merge into one, and a river runs through it."
- Norman MacLean
Hello,
I just wanted to express my opinion on the removal of the Hoh
river gage. This station is pretty much the only way I can get an idea on
the conditions of the rivers are at the coast. I have often used this
station to cancel trips that I make over to the coast at the last minute.
Their are many other stations that could be taken down that would not
impact the sportsman who rely on this data. I have heard it mentioned that
their are 5 gages on the SF Tolt (Why). What about the 3 gages on the
Sultan River (Wow overkill). Lets rethink this and do what makes sense. I
spend $1500+ a year in the town of Forks in fishing trips. If this gage
goes down I will probably not be making many trips since any hint of rain I
will not go, when I probably should go because the weather report is wrong,
and the rivers haven't really been affected (Something I will no longer be
able to see with the gage gone).