By Paul Alleva, The Chronicle, 7/21/2001
If the drought has not directly affected a significant number of Western Washington residents yet, it probably will sometime within the next 10 weeks.
''Just wait,'' said Mary Getchell, public information officer for the Washington Department of Ecology. ''July through September are the driest months of the year, and the months of highest water use.''
Doug McDonnal, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle, said one reason most Lewis County residents have not been appreciably affected by the drought is that precipitation during the past three months has been ''around 120 percent of normal, or 20 percent above normal. Reservoirs in Western Washington are in pretty good shape.''
In the past three months, Eastern Washington's precipitation has been normal, he said, ''but their normal precipitation is much lower than ours. For example, normal average precipitation in June is about half an inch for Yakima.''
Yakima Valley's five reservoirs are snowpack driven, McDonnal said.
''They (Yakima Valley residents) depend on the snowpack to recharge the reservoirs,'' he said.
Precipitation on the east slopes of the Cascades has been 50 percent of normal, so those reservoirs have not been fully recharged, he said.
Another factor that contributes to the drought's more dramatic effect on the eastern part of the state is that Eastern Washington has more competing demands for water than does Western Washington, McDonnal said.
''They use water for fish, for power, for agricultural uses, for business and residential uses and industrial uses,'' he said, and the agricultural uses for water are much more demanding there than here.
Getchell said although Eastern Washington has been more seriously hurt by the drought, some Western Washington residents are beginning to feel the drought's effects.
''(Washington has) grown by a million people in the last decade,'' she said. ''More and more people are competing for (water).''
There are 750,000 wells less than 100 feet deep statewide, back-yard wells that are exempt from the permitting process, she said.
''In Thurston County, people are calling, saying, 'Our wells are going dry.' Several communities in Western Washington, including the city of Kent, the city of Bremerton and the communities in the Sammamish Plateau in east King County, have asked the Department of Ecology for more water,'' Getchell said.
She said those communities must prove their water supply is at 75 percent of normal or less, which at this point they have not done, because their need for water is not a drought need but a growth need.
''The city of Kent uses an average of 250 gallons a day per residential unit,'' Getchell said. ''The Sammamish Plateau uses up to 800 average gallons a day per residential unit.''
Getchell said much of that water is used for outside watering. Many residents have fountains on their property, she said.
Residents of the Sammamish Plateau used so much water last summer, she said, ''they dried up the north fork of the Issaquah Creek, which was a salmon-bearing creek, for a couple of months.''
She said the pumping of the ground water well connected to the creek is what caused it to go dry.
''Wells are always connected to surface water,'' she said. ''The diversion of water from a well can deplete surface water.''
Getchell said so many people are using water that new applications sit on file with the department for as long as eight to 10 years.
''If everyone who legally had a right to use water exercised that right, we'd have far more streams going dry,'' she said.
Another effect of the drought in Western Washington is that many utilities have raised their water rates, Getchell said.
''The city of Tacoma has tripled its water rates since spring,'' she said.
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Paul Alleva covers public issues for The Chronicle. He may be reached by e-mail at palleva@chronline.com or by calling 807-8239.