Clallam officials and regional utilities map coordinated plan for power, water, zoning and ports to attract industry

Clallam County elected officials, Port of Port Angeles commissioners and leaders of the local public utility district met Oct. 12, 2025, to discuss aligning power, water, transportation and zoning so the county can pursue larger industrial projects and shore up infrastructure resilience.

The meeting aired longstanding local priorities: improving reliability on the West End’s electrical system, identifying contiguous industrial land with full utilities, clarifying which agency can serve which neighborhoods, and finding state or federal funds to build “shovel-ready” sites that would attract large employers. Participants repeatedly flagged transmission limits imposed by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), water-system capacity in remote areas, and Highway 101 and truck-route constraints as barriers to recruitment.

Peninsula PUD officials described a batch of state grants they say will fund undergrounding, pole replacement and substation work to harden the grid in the county’s western service area. Audrey (PUD staff) told the meeting the utility won roughly 40% of the state’s resilience funding the PUD applied for and enumerated projects including targeted undergrounding (Diamond Point Road), transmission pole replacements from wood to fiberglass, circuit switch replacements and substation rebuilds to create more ties and redundancy. "We were able to get undergrounding project for several distribution projects," Audrey said.

Bowen Kendrick, director of water and wastewater for the PUD, said the county’s water supply is diversified overall, but that isolated systems remain vulnerable. "We're pretty well diversified between surface water sources and groundwater sources. Our…