Drinking water

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The history of water in Tumwater

Running tap Water has played an important role in Tumwater's history. Our abundance of water, which includes artesian wells, gave Tumwater a national identity. For over a century, the Olympia Brewing Company made the city of Tumwater the face of Olympia Beer with its brewery location on the falls of the Deschutes River.

The first water system in the Tumwater area was built by the Olympia Brewing Company in 1885, using the extraordinary high-quality water in their product and coining the phrase, "It's the Water." Tumwater later purchased that system as a source of supply for the city.

As the city’s population grew, water demands grew. Since the 1950’s three wellfields have been developed. These wellfields are called the Palermo, Bush, and Port wellfields. All three are located in three separate geographic locations with a total of eleven wells. Additionally, the city manages one satellite water system, Lakeland Manor, that is supplied by its own well. In times of need, such as well failure, the city supplements Lakeland Manor with city water.

While time has changed many facets of the city's relationship with its water supply, it nonetheless remains our community's most important asset, and one that we strive to maintain.

City water supply

Where does our water come from?

The Tumwater water utility's top priority is providing drinking water of the highest quality to our customers within Tumwater's service area. City water comes from underground aquifers and is pumped and treated to provide quality drinking water.

Aquifers

Our water comes from underground aquifers - sand and gravel formations below the ground that "hold" water. These aquifers are replenished by rain and snow as they infiltrate through the ground and are filtered by the soil and trillions of microbes. The many layers of soil, rock, and microbes that sit above the aquifers act to cleanse the water as it passes and helps prevent contamination from the surface. Tumwater's water system draws water out of these aquifers from multiple sources located around the city.

Bush Wellfield

The Bush Wellfield is located in southwest Tumwater, near George Washington Bush Middle School. The wells were constructed to provide alternative sources to the Palermo Wellfield. The wellfield is currently the city’s largest producer of drinkable water primarily because of the decline in production capability that many of the wells have been experiencing. To help keep the water clean, the city has implemented aeration treatment, which is suitable for removing volatile organic compounds coming from the Southgate and Littlerock Road/Trosper Road areas.

Lakeland Manor Well

Lakeland Manor

The Lakeland Manor Water System is operated and maintained by the city of Tumwater but is its own separate system from the city’s main distribution system. This is called a Satellite Management Water System. All drinking water for Lakeland Manor comes from its own well located on 60th Avenue Southwest. The drinking water from this well is safe to drink without any treatment or additives, like chlorine. In addition, to ensure that they continue to receive water in the event of a power outage or other emergency, the city provides an emergency interconnection with Lakeland Manor. If an outage occurs, they will temporarily receive water from the city’s main distribution system, which is chlorinated.

Palermo Wellfield

The city’s Palermo Wellfield is one of the city’s oldest and most important wellfields, and up until the early 1990s, provided close to 100% of the city’s drinking water. Palermo wells deliver high quality groundwater from six wells to customers throughout the city, blending with water from our Bush and Port wellfields.

All of our water is disinfected for public health using sodium hypochlorite, a common water treatment additive that creates a low level of chlorine to provide disinfection to the system. Visit our section on water chlorination to learn more about our disinfection program.

Palermo Super Fund Project

In the early 1990’s, the city was conducting routine wellhead protection monitoring when it discovered a contaminant that should never be found in drinking water, trichloroethylene or TCE. TCE is a man-made chemical solvent commonly used in industrial settings as a metal degreaser. In commercial or residential settings, TCE can be found in cleaning fluids, paint, spot removers, metal cleaners and varnishes.

Despite the low levels of detection, as the city’s primary source of supply, the city had to move quickly. Calling in the local and state health departments and the EPA, the city coordinated a response to 1) cease production at three of the impacted wells, 2) find new drinking water sources throughout Tumwater to help supply the city’s drinking water needs and 3) build treatment facilities to protect our customers and begin removal of the TCE in the water.

The Palermo treatment systems have been in full operation since 1999. While the TCE is being treated, there has been zero detection of TCE in the drinking water serving our customers. As an added bonus, the aeration treatment towers at the wellfield help to increase the pH of the water, reducing the potential for pipe corrosion in your home.

For more information on the Palermo Superfund project, contact Water Resources at 360-754-4140, or visit the EPA site library, Palermo Well Field Groundwater Contamination.

Port Wellfield

The city operates several wells in the general area of the Olympia Airport and Israel Road. Many of these wells and the associated water rights were acquired by the city from the Port of Olympia in 1991. As with the Palermo water rights, in 2001 the city negotiated with the Washington State Department of Ecology to review the quantities associated with previously issued water rights and determine whether the amounts were correctly established. As a result, the Department of Ecology issued a superseding permit that increased the city’s water right portfolio.

2020 Water System Plan

The city of Tumwater delivers clean water to approximately 29,000 customers through over 8,000 main water connections every day. In order to make sure we can continue to serve our customers into the future, we rely on a Water System Plan.

The Water System Plan helps provide a framework to guide the city’s operations, projects, and budgets. This plan ensures that the city can continue to serve our current and future customers. The plan forecasts what our system will need to look like to meet demands in six and twenty years. This helps us plan for short and long-term water needs. The latest update to our plan occurred in 2020. You can download the report below to learn more.

The Water System Plan for the city of Tumwater can be viewed and downloaded. Due to the large size of the documents, download times may vary.

Want to learn more about water quality?

Water Quality Report
Tap Sampling and Results

How can you protect our water resources?

Spill Reporting
Water Conservation
Wellhead Protection

Can't find the information you're looking for?

Call Water Resources and Sustainability at 360-754-4140 or email for assistance.

City of Tumwater, WA