Bellevue wants residents to know the Puget Sound Region will not be facing a water shortage this summer, and encourages them to wash their cars, water the lawn and shower — they could even take two.

“You can do the things you’ve been doing for the past five years,” said Chuck Clarke, CEO for the Cascade Water Alliance, a municipal corporation of which Bellevue is the largest member.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee declared a statewide drought emergency on May 15, after historically low snowpack that is shrinking rivers. The long-term outlook of water scarcity across the state is a $1.2 billion crop loss this year and an early fire season extending to higher elevations, according to Washington officials.

Clarke said the city of Seattle, which provides Bellevue its water, addressed its concern over low snowpack in February by taking rain into its reservoir, rather than waiting for runoff.

“The goal is to have the reservoir full on June 1,” he said.

Clarke said climate change models show precipitation staying steady here and snow pack remaining down, but predicting rainfall a year ahead is difficult.

“Seattle, Cascade, Bellevue, we’re always looking ahead,” Clarke said, “but the hardest thing to predict when you look ahead is precipitation.”

Bellevue Utilities Director Nav Otal said she’s part of a long-term planning work group for earthquakes, climate change, water quality and drought. The subcommittee is an offshoot of the Water Supply Forum, a cooperative of King, Snohomish and Pierce counties that addresses water supply issues.

“I think — 20 or 30 years ago — this kind of drought would have hurt the system,” Clarke said.

Seattle has changed its water supply management practices a lot since then, Otal said, the city’s last water supply issue occurring in 1992.

Cascade put $18 million into Lake Tapps projects this year, after drawing down the lake. The CWA hopes it will be 30-40 years before it needs to use the water resource. Its municipal partners are in a contract with Seattle through 2039, Clarke said. Among the CWA’s membership are the cities of Issaquah, Kirkland, Redmond and Tukwila. Clarke said the CWA is looking at whether Lake Tapps should be an “insurance policy” or be put to use sometime in the future.

Due to the drawdown for projects, the Lake Tapps Reservoir was not replenished by runoff from White River this year and levels are low. Refilling began in mid-March, but precipitation decreased in April and the water level in the river dropped, Clarke said.