Officials at the Port Townsend Paper mill are watching the dried out Olympic Mountains that supply the mill’s water with great concern.

“We are extremely worried about it,” General Mill Manager Carr Tyndall told the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce on June 29. “It’s going to be a tough summer.”

Curtailment of mill activity is possible, mill officials said. Tyndall offered that the annual mill maintenance shutdown, which usually comes in November or December, might be moved up to October and, depending on water issues, be longer than usual.

Felix Vicino, the human resources director, said a closure before October is not currently planned but is possible. “Hopefully not, but it could be an option depending on the situation,” he said. “We’re trying everything we can to reduce” water use right now.

The mill has already rented one cooling tower, and plans to rent two more. The three units, at a cost of $90,000 per month, should allow the mill to reuse up to 3 million gallons a day by recapturing steam, said Environmental Manager Kevin Scott.

Scott noted that in 2005 the mill used 15 million gallons per day. It now uses 9 million gallons per day and, with the cooling towers, could reduce that to around 6 million gallons per day.

Scott is also trying to re-use water from effluent through a reverse osmosis process.

Still, the water system owned by the City of Port Townsend that feeds the thirsty mill may soon be curtailed from removing any additional water from the Quilcene River basins, meaning drawdown of the reservoirs at Lord’s Lake and City Lake will be tapped for both the mill and the rest of the city. The city uses about 1 million gallons a day. A water agreement calls for the mill to curtail its water use first in the event of a water shortage.

“Pray for rain,” summarized Vicino. And master of ceremonies Katherine Baril told all chamber members to begin conserving and reusing water today.

Environmental Manager Annika Wallendahl reviewed several other developments at the mill in their presentation, including:

• PT Paper is about to invest $10 million in new air scrubbing equipment that should reduce tiny particulate matter from Power Boiler No. 10 by 65 percent.

• New refiners are already online, scuffing up wood fiber so the pulping process requires less water.

• Burning petroleum has been reduced by 60 percent since 2005, with more to come.

• The settlement ponds, source of most of the mill odor, have been cleaned out of bottom sludge through 300 truckloads sent to distant landfills, and continue to have oxygen injection to reduce odor.

• The mill has made a new commitment to community involvement and an open door, including mill tours, a quarterly e-newsletter for residents and stepped-up assistance for the Jefferson Land Trust, the Chamber, UGN and other causes. The new openness has had a positive impact, Scott said. “If people don’t know what you’re doing, they make things up, and people are very creative,” he said.