Dry winter prompts water advisory in Seattle, Tacoma

10:29 PM PST on Wednesday, March 16, 2005

KING5.com

SEATTLE - Mayors for Seattle and Tacoma urged residents and businesses Wednesday to conserve water conservation in an effort to deal with what has been the driest winter on record.

Mountain snow pack is at record lows and March continues to be uncharacteristically dry in spite of some long-overdue rain Wednesday and snow in the mountains.

The request to conserve comes in the form of a "water advisory"

The advisory is the first stage of the Seattle Public Utility's Water Shortage Contingency Plan.

There are no mandatory water restrictions during the advisory stage. But customers are asked to monitor their use of water and take measures to use it wisely.

If the dry weather persists, SPU can institute voluntary, mandatory and even emergency measures to conserve water.

Seattle reservoirs are slightly above normal because water system managers moved aggressively to capture water from January storms, according to the Mayor's office.

"People need to understand, this is the first step. That if the weather does not change we will be taking additional stronger steps including voluntary restrictions and mandatory curtailment," Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels said.

Seattle and Tacoma's water supplies are very different from each other. Seattle has reservoirs that are reliant on a virtually nonexistent snow pack.

Tacoma depends on flows from the Green River and wells under the city itself. City officials are considering bringing three additional wells back on line.

The mayors outlined several ways they said residents could help:

• Washing full loads of clothes
• Fixing leaking toilets and faucets
• Reducing the frequency of car washing, or washing cars at locations that recycle their water
• Turning off running water in bathrooms or kitchen sinks
• Shortening shower time
• Not pre-rinsing dishes unless necessary. Most newer dishwashers don't require pre-rinsing
• Implementing water-wise gardening practices.