The utilities of Seattle are provided by two government owned, and five privately owned, public utilities. The public utilities are Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) for the water supply and waste management, and Seattle City Light for electricity. The private companies are Puget Sound Energy for natural gas; CenTrio Seattle for district heating; CenturyLink for telephone service, DSL and FTTH; and Comcast and Wave Broadband for cable television and cable internet.
The city's water is furnished by Seattle Public Utilities, an agency of the city, which owns two water collection facilities: one in the Cedar River watershed, which primarily serves the city south of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, and the other in the Tolt River watershed, which primarily serves the city north of the canal. [1]
Natural gas is furnished by privately owned Puget Sound Energy, which began its existence in 1886, generating electric power as the Seattle Electric Light Company. [2] Nowadays, the city's electricity is furnished by Seattle City Light, an agency of the city, which owns numerous hydroelectric dams on the Cedar and Skagit Rivers. Seattle first decided to invest in public power generation in 1902, initially handling this as part of the water department; the resulting Cedar Falls hydroelectric facility (1905) is now the oldest continually operating, publicly owned hydroelectric plant in the U.S. City Light became a separate city agency in 1910, and, in 1951, bought out the last of their privately owned competitors. [3] [4]
The privately owned Seattle Steam Company, founded 1893, generates steam by burning natural gas and wood, and provides it to over 200 businesses in downtown Seattle—where hotels figure prominently among its customers—and on First Hill, where it serves several of the city's largest hospitals. The company was renamed Enwave Seattle in 2014. [5] [6]
The first water system in Seattle is credited to one of the city's founding pioneers, Henry Yesler. He stored water from springs in a tank located on what is now Yesler Way between Fourth and Fifth Avenues, roughly the location of the Old Public Safety Building on the uphill east edge of the Pioneer Square neighborhood, site of the settlement that became the city. From this tank a V-shaped trough conducted water to his mill at the foot of Mill Street, now Yesler Way. [7]
As the settlement grew into a town and city, water was drawn from Lake Washington and Lake Union. Various independent companies provided water to different neighborhoods. The largest of these was the Spring Hill Company, which drew water from Lake Washington. [7] Formed in 1881 by Louis R. Johns and J.R. Lewis, they stored water from the springs on First and Beacon Hills in seven tanks, holding a combined 200,000 gallons. They sold out a year later to a partnership consisting of John Leary, Bailey Gatzert, and Jacob Furth. They began pumping water from Lake Washington in 1884, at the current location of Colman Park. In 1889, they added a 2,500,000 gallon reservoir located at Holgate and 14th on Beacon Hill. [8] [9] [10] [11]
These arrangement soon proved inadequate. On September 24, 1888, Mayor Robert Moran urged the city council to call an election to "determine finally whether this city is to have an abundant supply of pure water at cost, or continue to pay tribute to private individuals on all water used in the future." [7]
In a July 8, 1889, election, [12] 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 (equivalent to $13 million today. [13] ). These plants saw the city through until the 1901 completion of Cedar River Supply System No. 1. [14] [15] [8] [9]
Lake Washington is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the largest lake in King County and the second largest natural lake in the state of Washington, after Lake Chelan. It borders the cities of Seattle on the west, Bellevue and Kirkland on the east, Renton on the south, and Kenmore on the north, and encloses Mercer Island. The lake is fed by the Sammamish River at its north end and the Cedar River at its south.
Thornton Creek is 18 miles (29 km) of urban creeks and tributaries from southeast Shoreline through northeast Seattle to Lake Washington. Its 12-square-mile (31 km2) watershed, the largest in Seattle, exhibits relatively dense biodiversity for an urban setting; it is home to frogs, newts, ducks, herons, and beavers, in addition to more than 75,000 people. From west of Jackson Park Golf Course in Shoreline, from Sunny Walter-Pillings Pond in Licton Springs–North College Park, and north Northgate Thornton Creek flows through Maple Leaf and Lake City, including the Victory Heights, Meadowbrook, and Matthews Beach neighborhoods, and empties into the lake at Matthews Beach Park.
The Cedar River is a river in the U.S. state of Washington. About 45 miles (72 km) long, it originates in the Cascade Range and flows generally west and northwest, emptying into the southern end of Lake Washington. Its upper watershed is a protected area called the Cedar River Watershed, which provides drinking water for the greater Seattle area.
First Hill is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is named for the hill on which it is located, which in turn is so named for being the first hill encountered while traveling east from downtown Seattle toward Lake Washington. First Hill is bounded on the west by Interstate 5, beyond which is Downtown, on the north by E. Pike and E. Madison Streets, beyond which is Capitol Hill, and on the south by Yesler Way, beyond which is the International District. The City of Seattle provides conflicting information about its eastern limit, beyond which are Cherry Hill and the Central District. Some describe it as being bounded by Broadway and Boren Avenues, while others describe it as being bounded by 12th Avenue.
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. The agency was established in 1997, consolidating the city's Water Department with other city functions.
Lake Chelan Dam officially known as the Lake Chelan Hydroelectric Project is located approximately 32 miles (51 km) north of the city of Wenatchee in Chelan County. The dam is located at the lower or southeasterly end of 50.4 miles long Lake Chelan, and is within the limits of the city of Chelan. The powerhouse is located near the community of Chelan Falls. The reservoir has 677,400 acre-feet (835,600,000 m3) of usable water storage. The 10-year average generation for the Project is 365,000 megawatt hours.
Seattle City Light is the public utility providing electricity to Seattle, Washington, in the United States, and parts of its metropolitan area, including all of Shoreline, nearly all of Lake Forest Park, and parts of unincorporated King County, Burien, Normandy Park, SeaTac, Renton, and Tukwila. Seattle City Light is the 10th largest public utility in the United States and the first municipal utility in the US to own and operate a hydroelectric facility. In 2005, it became the first electric utility in the United States to fully offset all its carbon emissions and has remained carbon neutral every year since.
Henry Leiter Yesler was an American entrepreneur and a politician, regarded as a founder of the city of Seattle. Yesler served two non-consecutive terms as Mayor of Seattle, and was the city's wealthiest resident during his lifetime.
Reginald Heber Thomson was a self-taught American civil engineer. He worked in Washington state, mainly in Seattle, where he became city engineer in 1892 and held the position for two decades. Alan J. Stein wrote that Thomson "probably did more than any other individual to change the face of Seattle" and was responsible for "virtually all of Seattle's infrastructure".
Rattlesnake Lake is a lake in the northwest United States, located in Rattlesnake Mountain Scenic Area in King County, Washington, approximately thirty miles (50 km) east of Seattle, south of Interstate 90.
Mossyrock Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam on the Cowlitz River near Mossyrock in Lewis County, Washington, United States. The reservoir created by the dam is called Riffe Lake. The primary purpose of the dam is hydroelectric production while flood control is a secondary function. The dam is the tallest in Washington state and its hydroelectric power station supplies 40% of Tacoma Power's electricity.
George Fletcher Cotterill, born in Oxford, England, was an American civil servant and politician. His public career in Seattle and the state of Washington lasted over 40 years; Cotterill was a Georgist progressive. He was an advocate of woman suffrage, prohibition, land value tax, municipalisation of port facilities and utilities, and the development of public parks.
Cedar Falls Utilities (CFU) is a municipally-owned public utility serving Cedar Falls, Iowa and is a member of the Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities (IAMU). CFU provides municipal water service, electricity generation and distribution, natural gas service, and combined cable television, Internet access, and phone service to its customers. CFU serves approximately 19,000 Cedar Falls residents and businesses with over 14,900 broadband customers.
The Rex River is a river in the U.S. state of Washington. It originates near the crest of the Cascade Mountains and flows northwest to join the Cedar River in the Chester Morse Lake reservoir. The Cedar River flows to Lake Washington and, ultimately, Puget Sound. Tributaries of the Rex River include Pine Creek, Lindsay Creek, and Boulder Creek.
James Delmage Ross was the superintendent of lighting for Seattle for 28 years and was the first administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration. He was instrumental in developing the Cedar Falls and Skagit River hydroelectric power plants. A self-taught engineer, Ross advocated for public utilities and regional power networks. He also later served as a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Taylor is an extinct town in King County, in the U.S. state of Washington.
The Seattle Municipal Street Railway was a city-owned streetcar network that served the city of Seattle, Washington and its suburban neighborhoods from 1919 to 1941. It was a successor to the horse-drawn Seattle Street Railway established in 1884, and immediate successor to the Puget Sound Traction, Power and Light Company's Seattle division.
Electricity in the Puget Sound region is a significant factor in people's lives, an enabler for the modern economy, and has a unique relationship with the region's environment.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to infrastructure of the U.S. state of Washington.
Seattle Municipal Light and Power Plant, also known as Cedar Falls Historic District, is a public hydroelectric plant near North Bend, Washington operated by Seattle City Light. The plant was the first publicly-owned electrical generating plant for Seattle and one of the earliest in the country for a municipality of its size. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.
