The Path Our Water Takes
When you turn on a tap in your home, do you know where the water comes from? If you live in south King County in the cities of Burien, Des Moines, Federal Way, Kent, Normandy Park, SeaTac or Tukwila you might purchase your water from us at Highline Water District. But, is that really where your water comes from?
The water that comes out of your faucet every day,
travels a much longer journey than you may realize. Most of
Highline Water District's water (about 90%) comes from the Cedar
River Watershed in the Cascade Mountains. This is a specially
protected watershed owned by the City of Seattle, who then sells
some of that water to us at Highline Water District. This water is
stored in Chester Morse Lake until it is treated to insure its
quality at Landsburg Dam and Lake Youngs. Providing a steady supply
of high quality drinking water requires a properly designed and
well-maintained distribution system. Water flows many miles through
huge pipelines carrying the water down to our communities.
Highline Water District also has two wells that provide additional water to our supply. These wells pump water to the surface from an aquifer far below. This water is then cleaned and filtered at our treatment plant and stored for us use when needed.
Highline Water District stores water in our eight
reservoirs, water tanks and standpipes until it is needed. These
are usually found on hilltops throughout our communities to take
advantage of the free forces of gravity. These storage structures
provide the necessary pressure to move water through pipelines and
water mains (more than 270 miles of pipe just in our district
alone). Large amounts of water are also stored to fight fires and
for emergency use.
So next time you turn on the faucet to brush your teeth, or get a drink of water, just remember how far that water traveled before reaching you!
