It rained a little yesterday, but Seattle Public Utilities tells us its Chester Morris Dam is still 7 feet below normal.
It's been cooler the last few days but SPU says water usage is still 20 percent above normal.
So now Seattle, Everett and Tacoma are activating their Water Shortage Response Plan.
SPU Conservation Program Manager Kelly O'Rourke told us what the utilities want consumers to do, "If they didn't heed our ask a couple weeks ago about using water wisely, we want them now to really carefully manage their water wisely," she said
That means skip watering your lawn, and if you can't do that, at least wait after 7 at night or before 8 in the morning.
And we learned more from the people we met in Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood.
“(I’m) making sure that I run my dishwasher when it's full, that I run my laundry when it's full,” said Sara Cant.
"I think naturally you just conserve water. You just do the trickle out of the faucet instead of having it always go at full," Lori Roozen said.
“When I'm trying to run hot water in the kitchen I take in the cold water first and take that out to my plants while I'm waiting for the hot water to run”, Amy Martin added
Other advice includes fix the water leaks in your house, use a broom, not a hose to clean the porch and driveway, wait until you have full loads for the washing machine, and don't pre-rinse the dishes in the dishwasher.
There's no emergency yet, but there could be restrictions if reservoir levels remain low.
“We're trying to have customers aware of the situation now so that they are more able to get into the phase two voluntary without seeing so much perceived sacrifice,” said SPU water supply director Alex Chen.
KIRO
