Cascade Water Alliance celebrated its 10th anniversary with a recent luncheon, noting its accomplishments over the past decade and unveiling plans for upcoming public outreach on its water transmission and supply planning for the next several decades.

Cascade is an eight-member nonprofit corporation formed in 1999 to provide clean, safe and reliable water to their almost 400,000 residents and more than 22,000 businesses. Members include the cities of Bellevue, Redmond, Issaquah, Kirkland and Tukwila, the Covington Water District and the Sammamish Plateau and Skyway Water and Sewer Districts. Membership is open to all municipal waters systems in the Puget Sound region.

Lloyd Warren, Cascade chair and commissioner with the Sammamish Plateau Water & Sewer District, said Cascade successfully has met its initial mission of ensuring the availability of clean, safe water for East and South King County communities, including Auburn, and that planning for the next several decades is under way.

The accomplishments were made possible through partnerships with Seattle and Tacoma, both of whom will continue to provide water to Cascade as its full water supply system is built out.

Other accomplishments celebrated include:

• Purchase of Lake Tapps from Puget Sound Energy as the region’s first new water supply source to be created in decades. In 1911, Lake Tapps was formed as a reservoir by Puget Sound Power & Electric for generation of hydroelectric power from the White River. Now, almost a century later, Puget Sound Energy is no longer producing power there.

• Historic agreements with the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe and Puyallup Tribe of Indians that provide for the protection of fish, habitat and stream flows in the White River.

• Agreement with the Lake Tapps Community to preserve Lake Tapps as a valuable recreational resource while Cascade creates the first new water supply in the region in decades.

• Conservation programs that save about half a million gallons of water a day.

“We are here today not just with our members and our customers, but with our regional partners who understand planning today is essential in developing a water supply for tomorrow,” Warren said. “Water resources take a very long time to plan and develop which is why we are planning now for water that only our children and their children will see.”

“Looking ahead, Cascade is finalizing the purchase of Lake Tapps to secure a much needed new regional water supply source to provide future generations with water,” added Chuck Clarke, Cascades new CEO.

Cascade recognized its regional partners at the event as organizations that shared that vision and commitment.

For more information, visit Cascade’s Web site at www.cascadewter.org or e-mail contact@cascadewater.org