Ways to Save Water

Water is a precious resource that we should all strive to conserve. By making small changes in our daily routines, we can make a big impact on the environment.

Below are some simple ways to save water. Let's work together to protect our planet's most valuable resource.

Stop Leaks

Leaks are the quickest way to run up your water bill, and they put undue demands on our system. If you notice a leak from a buried pipe on your property, please contact our contract operator/manager Island Water Management. They can provide guidance for your situation and will consider authorizing a reduction in your water bill if you promptly repair the leak.
Email manager@westsidewater.org or call 206-567- 4568

Some ways to tell if you have an underground leak:

Your water bill is unexpectedly higher than usual.
You hear a running sound in your pipes when you’re not using water.
A wet spot or green grass shows up in your lawn in dry weather.

Conserve Water

Along with fixing leaks outside the house, there are things you can do to conserve water day to day. This helps keep your water bill down and it also helps WWA by making it less likely that we would need to add capacity to our system.

Here are some things to try:

Avoid watering your lawn. This cuts out the biggest demand on our water supply. And in our rural setting, it even looks good.
Turn off your faucet in between washing dishes, brushing your teeth and any other time where you may be letting your faucet run when it could be turned off.
Wash your vehicles at a car wash. This conserves water because car washes recycle their water. It also prevents soap and oils from soaking into the ground.
Fix leaks inside the house. We can help with leaks leading up to your house, but leaks inside the house can also be significant and are your responsibility. A running toilet or dripping faucet can consume hundreds of gallons a month.

Protect our Supply

We’re fortunate that our sources in Shingle Mill Creek are very clean and require only a minimum amount of treatment. However, there are still some areas where we need to be careful:

Prevent back flow. Install fixtures on your outside faucets to prevent water from being siphoned into your water pipes. If siphoning were to happen, contaminated water could get drawn into the supply system.
Look after our watershed. Our water comes from rainfall on the north end of Vashon Island that percolates down to our aquifers. It makes sense to avoid putting anything else into the ground: pesticides, weed killers, fertilizers, oils, fuel, or anything else that might contaminate our water. Included in this list would be seepage from poorly designed or poorly maintained septic systems. WWA water is regularly tested for contaminants and we are fortunate in that we have no industry or large-scale agriculture in our watershed. However, if contamination were to occur it would be very hard to fix.