Did you know that the city of Mercer Island purchased 777.67 million gallons of water from Seattle Public Utilities in 2008; the equivalent to 34,000 gallons per Island man, woman and child? It certainly sounds like a lot. How much water do you use? Is it a lot or a little ­— how can you tell? If only you could take a peek at what your neighbors using maybe you could get an idea. Well, now you can.

The City of Mercer Island water utility is in the process of sending out letters to every water customer on the Island. The letters show how each individual customer’s water use compares with that neighbors and Islanders as a whole.

City maintenance chief Glenn Boettcher said that the information about usage is to give users context; a point of reference as to judge how much water they use.

“It will hopefully pique their interest in conserving water,” he said.

The utility borrowed a page from Puget Sound Energy, he continued, which sends customers data in their gas and electric bills about how much energy they use each month as compared to the previous year.

The city has sent out letters to just over half of all customers so far, Boettcher said. The rest will be mailed, as their meters are read over the next few weeks.

Localizing data on water use by neighborhood makes it more relevant to individual users. Island water meters are divided up into ten routes that are read bimonthly for billing purposes. The routes are grouped geographically so are somewhat representative of a neighborhood for a particular customer.

There are a group of a dozen or so high end water users that the city contacts individually each year about their usage The city offers those customers the services of a consultant to help find ways to reduce their water use, Boettcher said. Those efforts have paid off, he said.

It appears that over the years, Islanders have become more careful about water use.

Boettcher said that water use, in particular during peak summer months has fallen over the past couple of years. He attributes this to more awareness on the part of residents and new irrigation technology that detects if it has rained and landscape professionals who are more tuned in to drought resistance plants and other water saving techniques.

Boettcher said that depending on how this experiment goes, the water utility may chose to do it every year.

Water facts

When you are billed for water use, you pay for the CCFs you used during the previous two months. A CCF is 100 cubic feet of water, which is about 748 gallons. If the information in the chart shows that you used 10 CCF of water in May/June 2008, it means you used about 7,480 gallons during that two-month period, or about 125 gallons per day.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, an American family of four can use 400 gallons of water per day, and about 30 percent of that is devoted to outdoor uses. More than half of that outdoor water is used for watering lawns and gardens. Nationwide, landscape irrigation is estimated to account for almost one-third of all residential water use, totaling more than 7 billion gallons per day.

Some experts estimate that up to 50 percent of commercial and residential irrigation water use goes to waste due to evaporation, wind, improper system design, or overwatering.

For a recent Reporter story about water, go to http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/east_king/mir/news/46755262.html.

For more information about the water utility letters and conservation tips can be found at www.mercergov.org.