A: To clarify, greywater is defined as water from dishwashers, clothes washers, and showers, but not toilets or urinals. As directed by the state Legislature, the Washington State Department of Health must adopt rules for greywater reuse by December 31, 2010. The purpose is to establish an efficient, effective and consistent statewide framework for the nonpotable use of greywater. The state legislature recognizes that reuse of greywater outside the building for subsurface irrigation can reduce the use of potable water and promote water conservation. It may still contain bacteria, viruses and chemicals that can pose health risks. Protecting public health and the environment requires adequate regulation. Contact the state Department of Health (www.doh.wa.gov) for more information.

A: We have received many questions about the notification process used during the recent outdoor watering restrictions. How to ensure timely, effective emergency communications also is a topic of frequent conversation among City officials. The recent water restrictions provided an excellent opportunity to test our communications capabilities in an urgent, but not-yet-life-threatening, situation. We used all the communications channels that were practical to get the word out quickly, including extensive work with local and regional news media and an automated call to all telephone numbers within Bellingham city limits. While not perfect, the automated telephone call was the most effective means of reaching thousands and thousands of residents and business owners within a matter of hours. We estimate it successfully reached or left voice mail messages for about 64% of the telephone numbers it dialed. The vendor we used to make the automated telephone calls has been informed of the gaps, and we will work together to fine-tune this process for use in the future. The best way to stay informed about any future water restrictions will be the city website at www.cob.org. An option on the website allows you to choose to sign up for an RSS feed of all city news releases, which would ensure that you receive news about water restrictions immediately when they are announced. We also rely on the local news media, especially the Bellingham Herald website and KGMI AM 790, to get the word out quickly, and we are grateful to them for their help during the past week.

A: These individual meters are downstream of the meter the City installs and reads. Installation and reading these individual meters and billing of the tenants is all handled by the owner. There is no City policy to actively recommend such systems. However, we do inform owners who express a desire to monitor or bill individual units that this is an option they can pursue.

A: The city has several contingency plans in place, including a Water Shortage Contingency Plan and City emergency operations plans, all successfully implemented last week. The Water Shortage Contingency Plan provides guidelines to the city to manage water supply and demand in the event of a disruption. The high levels of algae observed were out of proportion to anything we had experienced before. This, coupled with the usual high water demand period of the summer months, necessitated the city to follow protocol of the Water Shortage Contingency Plan, which provides stages of response based on severity of the water shortage situation. We also used the city's emergency operations plan, including forming an multi-discipline incident management team, to organize our response to the situation.

A: The high levels of algae were out of proportion to anything we had experienced before. The lake has served as a good source of water to the city and as such has shown relatively consistent water quality values from a treatment perspective. While we have noticed increases in chemical dosages required to treat the water to our high standards of purity, what was unexpected was how this particular algae diminished our capacity to produce water. All filters were operating at a high capacity and due to clogging from the algal by-product (mucilage) we just could not keep up with what was a high water demand during the hot weather. We need to not just treat water for consumption, but to assure that sufficient pressure stays in the water mains to fight fires. We were getting water pressure values that were too low in the ends of our gravity zone. We have never experienced anything like this in the many decades that this treatment plant has been in operation. It is analogous to a person who drives to work the same way every day for 25 years and besides a pothole here or there nothing in this route really changes. When we were operating the treatment plant the week of July 26th it was as if one lane of traffic was closed down and suddenly our commute was changed significantly. We continue to respond to the immediate water supply problem, as well as identifying appropriate actions to take to address longer-term water treatment capacity issues.

A: Thank you for your question. Squalicum Creek Park receives irrigation water from a different source, therefore not watering the baseball fields will not help the problem we are having meeting the demand for water from Lake Whatcom. Squalicum Creek Park's irrigation water comes from a well, so water restrictions do not apply to this location. Please note that we have curtailed most city watering, including not watering at city parks, turning off fountains, suspending firefighter training involving water hoses, and not washing fire trucks. Most restrictions will remain in place for the time being, even though we have lifted the mandatory outdoor watering ban effective Tuesday August 4. We acknowledge that watering the fields as you describe could send the wrong message, despite our best intentions. Thank you for raising this as a concern.

A: Mandatory watering restrictions imposed by the City applied only to established lawns and landscaping. New plants and lawns were not subject to mandatory restrictions. We encourage residents to use wise watering practices to conserve water even when taking care of new plants and lawns. Though mandatory restrictions were lifted, effective Tuesday August 4, we are asking residents to continue to conserve water in any way they can, especially by adhering to the following outdoor watering schedule: - Odd numbered street addresses water only on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. - Even numbered street addresses water only on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. - No outdoor watering on Mondays to allow our water supply to recharge. Please visit the City's website at www.cob.org for more information about voluntary water restrictions and water conservation.

A: Thank you for your question Chad. I would like to clarify first of all that this is not a campaign. This is a situation that was unexpected, the city had no control over, and that we are working hard to rectify. Because of the conservation efforts of everyone, we are confident we will be able to lift the mandatory watering restrictions next week. Without a meter, there is no way we can know what your current water use, is or has been in the past. Therefore, we cannot determine what, if any, compensation you or any other user without a meter, might be owed for using less water. There is no plan for compensating flat-rate water customers for conserving. When every household's water is metered, we will have accurate information about water use at individual residences. The costs related to this incident have been significant in terms of water use, staff time and outside expertise we have called upon to help us try and solve the mystery of the excess algae. If you would like to discuss the water shortage situation with me in more depth, please feel free to call me at 778-7905 Monday through Friday between the hours of 8am and 5pm.