Seattle Urges 1.5 Million Residents to Conserve Water Due to 43% Severe Drought Across State

Drought has struck the water supply in the city of Seattle, Washington, prompting local authorities earlier this week to impose water restrictions on the public.

As a statewide drought resulted in water reservoirs reaching below their normal average, the threat of water crisis is looming for the city last seen almost a decade ago.

The Seattle drought comes amid a similar natural disaster in the Midwest region of the United States, affecting the drinking water supply of several towns, including in the states of Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, and Texas.

Although the said extreme weather event is common in the Western US, drought conditions are relatively rare in Seattle, which typically has a temperate climate.

Seattle Water Crisis

On Thursday, September 21, the Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) asked approximately 1.5 million of its customers living in the Seattle area to conserve water as drought conditions have persisted across the state of Washington.

The public utility agency posted on its website that it is planning to stretch the region's water supply amid the crisis, recommending some of the following measures:

• Stop watering your lawn
• Take shorter or fewer showers
• Fix leaks immediately, especially running toilets

The SPU acknowledged that while Seattle may be known for its rainy weather, the past several months saw the persistence of dry weather and lack of precipitation across the Pacific Northwest, an evident characteristic of drought.

According to Elizabeth Garcia, a water resources planner at the agency, their hydrologic model suggests that there is a significant depletion of water supply from mountain reservoirs, highlighting that water levels are already lower than their historical average.

Under this circumstance, the SPU is adjusting to maintain adequate water supply for their customers, Garcia adds.

Washington Drought

The Seattle drought is part of a statewide emergency due to the lack of rainfall in recent months, as mentioned earlier. In early July, Washington officials issued a 'drought advisory' that was followed by a drought emergency for 12 counties.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 6.3 million residents across Washington are affected by drought, with 10 counties under the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Drought Disaster Designations. The agency also said nearly 10% of Washington is under extreme drought, while 43% of the state is in severe drought.

In this context, history might repeat itself because of the drought conditions impacting Seattle and the rest of Washington.

According to SPU, it was in 2015 when the agency last it activated its 'Water Shortage Contingency Plan,' where it also urged its customers to voluntarily consume less water. Although recent rainfall helped water levels to increase, it is still not enough to address the water demand of the local population.

The agency notes that normal water usage can get back to normal when enough rain refills the mountain reservoirs back to their necessary levels.