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