Seattle Public Utilities

Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) is a public utility agency of the city of Seattle, Washington, which provides water, sewer, drainage and garbage services for 1.3 million people in King County, Washington. [ [http://www.seattle.gov/util/services/ Services] , Seattle Public Utilities. Accessed online 6 December 2007.] The agency was established in 1997, consolidating the city's Water Department with other city functions. [Alan J. Stein, [http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2123 Seattle voters authorize Cedar River Water Supply system on July 8, 1889.] , HistoryLink, January 1, 2000. Accessed online 6 December 2007.]

eattle's water supply

SPU owns two water collection facilities: one in the Cedar River watershed, which supplies 70 percent of the drinking water used by 1.3 million people in Seattle and surrounding suburbs (primarily the city south of the Lake Washington Ship Canal) and the other in the Tolt River watershed which supplies the other 30 percent (primarily the city north of the canal). [ [http://www.seattle.gov/util/About_SPU/Water_System/Water_Sources_&_Treatment/Cedar_River_Watershed/index.asp] , Seattle Public Utilities. Accessed online 12 December 2007. ] [ [http://www.seattle.gov/util/About_SPU/Water_System/Water_Sources_&_Treatment/Tolt_River_Watershed/index.asp] , Seattle Public Utilities. Accessed online 12 December 2007. ]

From the city's founding through the 1880s, Seattle's water was provided by several private companies. In a July 8, 1889 election,Alan J. Stein, [http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2123 Seattle voters authorize Cedar River Water Supply system on July 8, 1889.] , HistoryLink, January 1, 2000. Accessed online 6 December 2007.] barely a month after the Great Seattle Fire (June 6, 1889) gave a dramatic illustration of the limitations of the city's water supply, Seattle's citizens voted 1,875 to 51 to acquire and operate their own water system. In accordance with this vote, the city Water Department acquired the Lake Union and Spring Hill plants for $400,000. [Harvnb|Fleming|1919|p=20–21]

This was understood from the first to be only a temporary expedient, inadequate to the expected growth of the city. Attention soon focused on the Cedar River, an idea first proposed in the 1870s;Harvnb|Peterson|1950|p=117] the question was how to bring that water to the city. From 1892, the responsibility for doing so fell to newly hired City Engineer Reginald H. Thomson and his assistant George Cotterill. Besides the technical challenges, they and a series of Seattle mayors had to keep the citizenry on board to move forward with this expensive project through the Panic of 1893.

The Klondike Gold Rush put Seattle on a sound economic footing. The 1901 completion of Cedar River Supply System No. 1 (active from February 21, 1901) gave the city a steady supply of clean water with an intake 28 miles from the city itself; this was supplemented by Cedar River Supply System No. 2 in 1909. Together, these systems gave the city a supply of more than convert|60000000|USgal|kl|0 of water a day.Harvnb|Fleming|1919|p=21]

The original Cedar River pipeline was made of reinforced wooden pipe "big enough so a small boy could stand upright in it" and carried convert|22500000|USgal|kl|0 of water a day. By 1950, three big mains carried up to convert|162000000|USgal|kl|0 of water a day.

To guard against contamination at the source, the city purchased or otherwise gained control of convert|142|sqmi|km2 of land and placed it under the jurisdiction of the Department of Health and Sanitation. The city also established an extensive system of reservoirs within city limits. By 1919, six reservoirs had a combined capacity of convert|270000000|USgal|kl|0. [Harvnb|Fleming|1919|p=21 says that Seattle "owns or controls" the entire drainage of the Cedar River] In 1950, the city owned "about two-thirds" of the watershed, the federal government "about one-fourth"; the remainder, "around eleven square miles," was owned by private lumber companies.Harvnb|Peterson|1950|p=118]

Seattle has at times contracted to provide water for entities out outside of city limits.Harvnb|Peterson|1950|p=123]

Notes

References

* Citation
last =Fleming
first =S. E.
year =1919
title =Civics (supplement): Seattle King County
place =Seattle
publisher =Seattle Public Schools. This is a public domain source, because it was published in the U.S. before 1923.

* Citation
last =Peterson
first =Lorin
last2 =Davenport
first2 =Noah C.
year =1950
title =Living in Seattle
place =Seattle
publisher =Seattle Public Schools.

External links

*http://www.seattle.gov/util/services