Call to conserve is considered

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Seattle's water suppliers will decide as soon as next month whether to ask residential customers to voluntarily reduce water use.

Yesterday, as Gov. Gary Locke declared a statewide drought emergency, Seattle Public Utilities said that because the region's dry spell continued through February and March, there remains a 20 percent chance of a water shortage that would significantly affect its 1.3 million customers in Seattle and King County.

As a result, utility officials are considering a call for voluntary conservation early next month, after officials review the latest snowpack reports from the Cedar and South Fork Tolt river watersheds, which are now at about 65 percent of normal.

To date, the utility maintains it has stored enough water for summer and fall for humans and fish - assuming the region receives at least normal precipitation between now and then. But if the lack of precipitation continues, the utility said, it may need customers' help.

Conservation measures during the past two decades have kept the utility's water demand at the same level it was in 1978 - the year after the worst drought on record - even though population has risen nearly 30 percent.

This year is likely to test those systems.

"This is already the worst drought in our state since 1977, and it's only March," Locke said. Locke drove his point home by making his drought announcement in the now-dry swimming area of Alder Lake, a hydropower source about 35 miles southeast of Olympia. The area where Locke stood is usually under 12 feet of water.

The emergency declaration does not mean mandatory conservation. Instead, Locke said, he and other state officials will be encouraging conservation and hope it will be as successful as voluntary electricity conservation has been.

The declaration opens a special state drought account that contains $5.1 million, which will be used to buy water rights to keep rivers and streams from drying up, to help cities and towns and farmers who irrigate.

The declaration also means the state Department of Ecology will move quickly on temporary transfers of water rights. Those could be transfers from farm to farm or from city to city. . The state now has a backlog of 1,800 applications. Under the declaration, designated applications will be processed within 15 days.

The Ecology Department also could allow farmers, irrigators and others to use emergency wells or to drill new wells. But director Tom Fitzsimmons said the agency probably will grant few if any emergency well permits because of limited underground water supplies.

However, many farmers say if they can't use wells to make up for the loss of water, they will probably go out of business.