Water service returns to Mount Rainier's Paradise

Partial water service has been restored to the Paradise area of Mount Rainier National Park after more than two weeks without running water. 

Limited flush restrooms are available at Paradise, the National Park Service said online. Narada Falls area is still using porta-potties.

“After an outage of the Paradise water supply, some water service has been restored,” the park service said.

The Paradise area, which houses the park’s main visitor center and largest hotel, has been without water service since at least Sept. 13. The hotel, Paradise Inn, has closed for the season.

An intense thunderstorm that brought an inch of rain after a dry spell that week clogged the water system filters by stirring up fine materials in the drainage. This has been an ongoing problem for Paradise, an interpretive media specialist for the national park said in mid-September.

It’s unclear how the impending federal government shutdown might impact the national park. In a shutdown in 2018 and 2019, the park stayed open.

But a group of former national park superintendents in a recent letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum called on the Trump administration to close the parks, saying poorly staffed facilities are a danger to the public and the parks themselves.

Materials from The Seattle Times archives were used in this report. The Associated Press contributed to this report.