Q and A and Water Quality Reports

Your 2008 Water Quality Report

2008 Water Quality Report Español

Your 2007 Water Quality Report

2007 Water Quality Report Español

Your 2006 Water Quality Report

As part of the Safe Drinking Water Act, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) wants to make certain that every consumer of tap water in the USA has information on the water you are drinking.

The report tells you, basically, how your water is treated, where it comes from – Potomac or Patuxent rivers - and the range and level of detection of any of the nearly 200 substances we test for in the water.

Our complete Tap Analysis is available by clicking right here.

Because most utilities in the area draw from the same source – the Potomac River - and use similar treatment processes, there is little difference.

Your tap water is very safe to drink. At WSSC, we have never had a violation of any of the water quality standards set by USEPA. The standards for bottled water are set by the Food and Drug Administration and it undergoes much less stringent testing than does tap water. It, too, can be expected to contain trace amounts of some contaminants.

Frequency of analysis depends on the parameter or contaminant being measured. Some are measured constantly in real time. Others are monitored hourly, or daily, or weekly, and so forth. For example, dozens of samples per day are tested for bacteria, but some rare exotic pesticides are monitored merely quarterly.

Because infants are particularly vulnerable to any organism in the water, the USEPA recommends that water used for baby’s formula be boiled before it is used.

Yes, unconditionally so.

We monitored our Potomac and Patuxent source waters on a monthly or twice per month basis between October 2006 and September 2008 as required by EPA. The results of this monitoring indicated that our Cryptosporidium levels in both of our source waters are at low levels and that we do not need additional treatment to address the risk associated with these levels. We also conducted some special monitoring during the same period researching sources of Cryptosporidium within the Potomac watershed, which we've used to help focus source protection programs we are working on with regional partners. Currently, we are not routinely monitoring for Cryptosporidium based on the fact that our risk appears low and because we are not required to do so, but we are planning for an additional two years of monitoring beginning in 2015 as required by EPA.

In spite of the low risk, as an extra precaution WSSC is taking the most important steps in protecting against Cryptosporidium, which include maintaining effective coagulation and filtration processes in our water treatment plants as well as adding UV disinfection equipment to both our water treatment plants.

Most of our customers receive their water from the Potomac Water Filtration Plant, and that water tends to be moderately hard. If you live in Laurel, Greenbelt or Beltsville, you are probably drinking water from the Patuxent Water Filtration Plant. That water tends to be more soft. Customers living in the hatched area on the map, roughly Silver Spring to Landover, are receiving a blend of the water from both plants.

Due to rain, ice and snowstorms, river conditions can produce strong bleachy odors and musty/earthy odors. The strong bleachy odor is not an indication of increased chlorine. The odor is a result of the combination of the chlorine used to disinfect and ammonia in the runoff water (rain, melting snow and ice) producing chloramines. Chloramines are not harmful and in fact are used by some utilities as the primary disinfectant. However, under certain circumstances, chloramines produce a very strong bleachy odor. There are no adverse health affects from the odor.