We don’t think a lot about not having enough water in Western Washington — we usually have too much. When we see photos of dry lake beds in California, we shrug, secure in the knowledge that abundant water is one more way we are superior to the ‘golden’ state. But this year, along with most of the West, water is in short supply in our state and in the Puget Sound region.

As a result, Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) has declared a water advisory for its service areas. Yet looking at the utility’s data regarding its low reservoirs and skinny snowpack, it looks more like an imminent disaster.

We are heavily dependent upon the amount of snowpack in the mountains — a natural phenomenon that essentially serves as a mountain-top water storage system. That source, along with a series of reservoirs carefully managed to protect fish, crops and a growing population, is usually more than adequate.

But things have changed.

The advisory declaration should read: stop watering the grass; do not wash your car in the driveway; hold off on washing dishes or laundry unless absolutely necessary. Showers should be not longer than three minutes, max.

Even with these admonishments, the amount of savings achieved by each household must be multiplied by thousands to be effective. Besides Mercer Island, SPU supplies water to approximately 1.3 million people in a dozen- plus communities in King County.

In addition to Seattle, those communities include: Bellevue, Redmond, Issaquah, Sammamish and Renton in an area that stretches from the King County boundary at Woodinville to the unincorporated areas to the south and east, to the foothills of the Cascades.

What we can learn from California as it urges its residents to take out lawns — is that watering the grass is a waste of money and resources. We say just “let it go,” this year.