Tacoma Water History

Workers construct a large water pipeline, with two men inside a pipe mounted on a wooden rail cart and others standing nearby.

Tacoma’s first commercial water delivery system started in 1873 and involved selling spring water by the barrel to residents on Pacific Avenue.

Charles B. Wright, a Philadelphia businessman, organized the Tacoma Light and Water Company to take advantage of supply and demand. The company took water from nearby springs and creeks, and the water reached residents by flowing through hollowed out tree logs that acted as water pipes.

The water, however, wasn’t a reliable water supply.

When water got delivered, it was discolored, lukewarm, tasted bad, and smelled worse. As the population grew, Tacoma residents were dissatisfied with Wright’s poorly run utility so the city bought it from him in 1893 to better manage the system.

A few South Tacoma wells started producing higher-quality water in 1906, but the supply wasn’t enough. Around this time, the mayor started a campaign to purchase water rights for the Green River. It took years of political fights and two public votes before residents approved the city purchasing Green River water rights and constructing a pipeline to bring the water to the city.

Blue-green forest lake with weathered logs floating along the wooded shoreline.

Fallen logs accumulate in a lake located higher up in the Watershed. This is a common thing to see in tree-lined high mountain lakes, and maintaining shorelines and habitat requires year-round efforts from our dedicated staff.

Aerial view of a water treatment facility surrounded by dense forested hills in the Green River watershed.

The water treatment facility and the start of Watershed headquarters and operations is surrounded by dense forest.

Interior of a water treatment facility with large blue pipes, valves, and filtration equipment arranged along a central walkway.

Giant, blue plumbing pipes support specific filters and make them work at our main water treatment facility. Our operators periodically change the valve configurations on these pipes and throughout other parts of the treatment plant to provide the best water quality at the right quantity, based on demand.

Aerial panorama of a tree-filled city with industrial buildings, roads, a large oval paved structure, and waterfront buildings under cloudy skies.

Downtown Tacoma stretches out in front of one of a part of the reservoir system. Pictured here in the bottom right is Hood St. Reservoir.

A shallow rocky stream flows through a dense autumn forest filled with green, yellow, and orange foliage.

Water in the Green River flows to the treatment facility at the start of fall.

Worker in safety glasses tests industrial equipment beside large blue pipes using instruments in an open yellow case.

A TPU employee maintains a water main system.

Water cascades over a concrete weir into a rippled basin surrounded by dense green vegetation and metal water-control structures.

Water flows at the Green River Watershed.

Large moss-covered green water pipe beside a utility building in a forested, misty mountain watershed.

Large, green, water pipes run through this western part of the Watershed.

Aerial view of a landscaped Tacoma water utility site beside a multilane road, surrounded by trees and residential buildings.

The white building on the left showcases a groundwater well location. Much of our groundwater comes from the South Tacoma wellfield, a key resource for our future drinking water supply. These 14 wells pump from productive aquifers that stretch from north of the Nalley Valley all the way to Lakewood.

Constructing the system took two years. Hundreds of workers laid 43 miles of pipe across difficult terrain from Enumclaw to Tacoma. Finally, on July 12, 1913, the city opened the water valves in Tacoma and clean Green River water flowed into the city.

Since 1913, the Green River has been the City of Tacoma’s primary water supply. The Green River gravity supply system was originally constructed with wood stave pipe and depended on gravity to draw the water down from the Cascade Mountains. The utility replaced the original wood pipes with concrete or steel pipes in the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s. Additional wells were added in the South Tacoma groundwater aquifer, and other groundwater wells were eventually established both inside and outside the city.

Over the years, the utility has improved the water system, which included completing a second pipeline in 2006 and building the Green River Filtration Facility in 2015. The gravity-based system remains the principal water source that we provide to our customers inside and outside of Tacoma.