overview formed 1997 preceding agency seattle water department type public utility jurisdiction city of seattle and some outlying communities headquarters municipal tower 700 fifth avenue seattle washington united states 47 36 18.36 n 122 19 47.28 w 47.6051000 n 122.3298000 w 47.6051000 ; 122.3298000 annual budget 809 million usd 2013 1 agency executive ray hoffman director 2 website http www.seattle.gov util water supply intake and wing dam under construction 1900 . pipe near renton washington to bring cedar river water to seattle ; this 1900 picture shows pipe newly laid . closeup view of a section of the wooden pipe that brought cedar river water to seattle from 1930 to 1991 . metal bands hold the pipe together . this section is now on display in maple valley washington . 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 . 3 the agency was established in 1997 consolidating the city s water department with other city functions . 4 contents 1 seattle s water supply 2 notes 3 references 4 external links seattle s water supply edit 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 . 5 6 from the city s founding through the 1880s seattle s water was provided by several private companies . in a july 8 1889 election 4 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 . 7 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 4 an idea first proposed in the 1870s ; 8 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 f. 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 . 4 the klondike gold rush put seattle on a sound economic footing . 4 the 1901 completion of cedar river supply system no. 1 active from february 21 1901 8 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 60 000 000 us gallons 227 125 kl of water a day . 9 the original cedar river pipeline was made of reinforced wooden pipe big enough so a small boy could stand upright in it and carried 22 500 000 us gallons 85 172 kl of water a day . by 1950 three big mains carried up to 162 000 000 us gallons 613 237 kl of water a day . 8 to guard against contamination at the source the city purchased or otherwise gained control of 142 square miles 370 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 270 000 000 us gallons 1 022 061 kl . 10 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 . 11 seattle has at times contracted to provide water for entities out outside of city limits . 12 in recent decades the seattle regional water system has significantly improved conservation . 2008 usage was roughly equal to usage in 1960 despite roughly a 35 % increase in population over that period . 13 from 1990 to 2012 total water usage declined 29 % despite a population increase of 17 % . 14 notes edit seattle city budget office . seattle public utilities pdf report . retrieved 4 september 2015 . director seattle public utilities . retrieved 4 september 2015 . services seattle public utilities . accessed online 6 december 2007 . a b c d e alan j. stein seattle voters authorize cedar river water supply system on july 8 1889 . historylink january 1 2000 . accessed online 6 december 2007 . 1 seattle public utilities . accessed online 12 december 2007 . 2 seattle public utilities . accessed online 12 december 2007 . fleming 1919 pp. 20 21 a b c peterson 1950 p. 117 fleming 1919 p. 21 fleming 1919 p. 21 says that seattle owns or controls the entire drainage of the cedar river peterson 1950 p. 118 peterson 1950 p. 123 drinking water quality report 2008 seattle public utilities . accessed online 2009 06 05 . more than 100 years of water stewardship seattle 2012 drinking water quality report p. 3 . references edit fleming s. e. 1919 civics supplement seattle king county seattle seattle public schools . this is a public domain source because it was published in the u.s. before 1923 . peterson lorin ; davenport noah c. 1950 living in seattle seattle seattle public schools . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to seattle water infrastructure . seattle public utilities services seattle water quality annual reports v t e government of seattle washington elected officials mayor city council judiciary city attorney departments and agencies city light fire department sfd housing authority municipal archives parks and recreation police department spd public health public library public schools public utilities transportation sdot boards and commissions landmarks preservation board women s commission retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title seattle public utilities & oldid 737228634 categories government of seattlerecycling industrywater companies of the united stateswaste management companies of the united statespublic utilities of the united statesamerican companies established in 1997hidden categories commons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages add links this page was last modified on 1 september 2016 at 13 45 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view