Water usage around Seattle is down, but the recent rain still won't help reservoirs

Good news and not-so-good news for the Seattle area. Water usage has gone down after the region was asked to voluntarily conserve water. Residents still need to use less water, however, and the recent stretch of rain has not been enough to offer significant relief.

"I love seeing the rain, especially now, and every little bit helps, but to put things in perspective, we are trying to make up for an extremely dry summer," Elizabeth Garcia, water resource manager with Seattle Public Utilities, said in a statement.

Water consumption in the area that SPU serves has gone down from 149 million gallons per day on Sept. 18 to 117 million gallons per day on Oct. 2. The utility wants to get water usage down to 100 million gallons per day. Less would be even better.

“On average, we get about 26 inches of rain in our mountain reservoirs from May 1 to October 1. This year, we only got 10 inches in that same period," Garcia said.

Seattle Public Utilities started asking its customers to voluntarily conserve water in late September. The region's reservoirs are running lower than normal after a rather dry spring and summer. These conditions are expected to continue through the fall and winter. That makes officials concerned.

Seattle is not alone. Bellevue and Kirkland have also asked residents to voluntarily conserve water.