Regional water supply conditions back to normal

Published 11:11 am Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Cascade Water Alliance joined the cities of Everett, Seattle and Tacoma on Nov. 23 in deactivating its Water Shortage Response Plan.

Cascade and its members — Redmond, Bellevue, Kirkland, Issaquah, Tukwila and the Sammamish Plateau and Skyway water and sewer districts — get their drinking water from the Seattle water supply.

Heavy rains in late October and early November led the three cities and Cascade to declare that water supply conditions were getting back to normal. Since that time, there’s been an overall shift in the weather pattern and the typical wet, cold November weather has returned.

The state remains in a declared drought, but the recent rains on the west side of the Cascades have saturated the ground, filled reservoirs and generally reset the water supplies to normal conditions.

Cascade Water Alliance joins the three cities in thanking customers for helping the region stretch its water supplies to meet the needs of people and fish in this unprecedented year.

Cascade and regional water planners continue to be aware of the strong El Nino weather pattern, which could bring warmer weather than normal as well as a below-normal snowpack in 2016. We are closely monitoring the weather, performing regular forecasts of water supply conditions and making operational adjustments to manage the water systems throughout the winter and into the spring.