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About SPU > Management > History & Overview

Quick Facts About SPU


We bring world class utility services to our community
Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) provides more than 1.3 million customers in King County with a reliable water supply, as well as essential sewer, drainage, and solid waste services for the City of Seattle.

To deliver these basic services, Seattle Public Utilities relies on a system of pipes, reservoirs, and disposal and recycling stations. Read on for a few quick facts about SPU.


Water
We own and manage:

  • • The Cedar River watershed, a 90,546-acre protected watershed that provides almost 70 percent of the area’s drinking water.
  • • 177, 928 metered service lines and 18,000 fire hydrants.
  • • 2,500 fire protection service lines.
  • • 1,670 miles of distribution water mains.
  • • 176 miles of water transmission pipelines (average pipe size is 66 inches diameter; largest pipe size is 90 inches diameter).
  • • 29 supply and distribution pumping stations with 96 individual pumping units.
  • • 16 reservoirs, totaling 489 million gallons of storage.
  • • 16 elevated tanks and standpipes, totaling 16 million gallons of storage.
  • • 4 dams, including 2 headwork facilities.
Cedar Falls



Solid Waste
  • • 350,000 combined customer visits to North and South Recycling and Disposal Stations annually.
  • • 256,000 tons of garbage are compacted and hauled to the rail yard from the North and South Recycling and Disposal Stations each year.
  • • 57,000 tons of yard waste received at the stations annually
  • • 24,900 tons of recyclable material reclaimed from waste stream annually.
  • • 3,300 tons of wood waste received at the stations each year.
  • • More than 6,000 appliances (e.g.: refrigerators, stoves) are collected each year.
  • • 56 tons of household hazardous waste diverted for reuse each year.
person bagging plastic bags



Drainage and wastewater
  • • 90,000 inlets.
  • • 51,000 maintenance holes.
  • • 45,396 catch basins.
  • • 1,491 miles of combined sewer and sanitary pipelines (average sewer pipe size is 8 inches diameter; largest pipe size is 210 inches diameter).
  • • 150 miles of ditches and culverts.
  • • 68 pump stations.
  • • 450 miles of storm sewer pipelines (average storm sewer pipe size is between 12 inches and 24 inches diameter; largest pipe is 180 inches diameter).
  • • 38 combined sewer overflow systems.
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