Seattle takes steps to save, store water

Seattle and Tacoma, two of the biggest suppliers of drinking water in Western Washington, are beginning to take steps to save water and store what little they have. They sound increasingly worried as dry weather persists and snow levels fall to a fraction of their usual levels.

"We're definitely extremely concerned at this point. We are managing the system as best as we can," said Guillemette Regan, who heads a task force created inside the Seattle Utilities Department on Feb. 23 to prepare for possible shortages.

The region's water supply hinges on two sources — melting snow and rain. With low snowpacks, water suppliers are looking to the sky in hopes it will help stave off more harsh water-conservation measures like mandatory restrictions on water.

Seattle, which also sells water to a number of King County cities, including much of the Eastside, in mid-January began storing more water than usual in its Cedar River and Tolt River reservoirs. As a result, the reservoir has slightly more water than it usually would at this time of year.

But factors that influence future water supply appear bleak. Snowpack in the Cedar River watershed was at 8 percent of normal by Monday. The Tolt River watershed snowpack, which supplies about 30 percent of the city's water, was at 23 percent of normal. Precipitation in February was between 20 percent and 50 percent of normal, Regan said.

Now, the agency is also considering delaying maintenance projects that require flushing water out of pipes, Regan said. When it wants to clean one of the small reservoirs that dot the city, it will try to let it empty as people use the water, rather than just draining it. The department is delivering brochures about drought-tolerant plants to local nurseries.

Everett, which controls water to nearly 500,000 people in Snohomish County, is more sanguine about its supplies. With a nearly full reservoir capable of holding 48 billion gallons of water, things looked good enough to send extra water down the river for salmon, said Jim Miller, engineering superintendent for the city's Public Works department.

"We've got the storage capacity; we feel we can do that without jeopardizing our water supply," he said.

Farther south, Tacoma officials have asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to keep more water than usual behind the Howard Hanson Dam, which sits upstream of where the city pulls water from the Green River.

Snow in the mountains that feed the Green River is less than 5 percent of normal, and flows in the Green River are at all-time lows.

Tacoma has wells it can use to draw water from underground. If the dry weather persists, that won't make up the difference, said John Kirner, superintendent of water for the city of Tacoma. But he held out hope that rain could soften the blow.

"We've had some pretty serious droughts, but they've always broken in the nick of time. Not to say that we can't have one that doesn't," he said.

Warren Cornwall: 206-464-2311 or wcornwall@seattletimes.com