A power outage at the Potomac Water Filtration Plant has affected operations at the facility that serves roughly 75% of WSSC Water's customers, prompting the utility to issue an urgent request Tuesday morning asking all 1.9 million customers across Montgomery and Prince George's counties to restrict water use to essential purposes only.
The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, which operates as WSSC Water, said the outage impacted operations at the plant and is now working with Pepco to prioritize restoring power to the facility, according to FOX 5 DC. WSSC Water said the water remains safe to drink and requires no boiling before essential use.
The Potomac plant, located along the Potomac River in Potomac, Maryland, is WSSC Water's largest treatment facility, with a maximum design capacity of up to 283 million gallons of drinking water per day, according to WSSC Water. Normally it produces 100 to 120 million gallons per day to meet regional baseline demand, per WUSA9's reporting. Customers across the service area typically use about 170 million gallons per day.
What Customers Are Being Asked To Do
WSSC Water is advising customers to limit flushing toilets, minimize use of washing machines and dishwashers, take shorter showers, and turn off faucets promptly. Outdoor water use and lawn irrigation systems are prohibited in both Montgomery and Prince George's counties for the duration of the request.
WSSC Water has said that immediate voluntary conservation preserves system water storage levels and fire protection capacity while helping prevent the kind of pressure drops that could trigger a mandatory Boil Water Advisory. Significant drops in municipal system pressure can allow groundwater or external contaminants to infiltrate distribution mains, the utility has noted.
A Familiar Scramble From Last Year
This is not the first time WSSC Water has asked its entire customer base to cut back. In a previous instance, the utility issued a similar essential-water-use-only directive for all 1.9 million customers due to system pressure and water storage challenges, lifting the restriction at 6:30 p.m. Monday after storage levels returned to normal.
The outage also lands atop infrastructure already under strain. WSSC Water's distribution network includes aging pipes. Hoodline previously reported on funding to replace decades-old mains in Prince George's County, part of a broader push that saw the Maryland Board of Public Works approve $11.8 million in clean-water loans and $2.5 million in Bay Restoration Fund grants for WSSC Water projects this month, following $40 million awarded in August for major water main replacements.
The outage also comes amid a wider regional conversation about water security. In June, WSSC Water and the Maryland Department of the Environment launched “Secure the Source,” a $25 million feasibility study examining secondary emergency water supply options for the roughly 5 million Washington metropolitan area residents who depend on the Potomac River as their main raw water source. Separately, DC Water began emergency rehabilitation work in June on a 1,700-foot section of the Potomac Interceptor sewer line at Muddy Branch in Potomac, Maryland, upstream of the plant's intakes, after inspections found severe pipe corrosion and exposed rebar, according to DC Water.
For now, WSSC Water customers in Montgomery and Prince George's counties are being asked to hold off on nonessential water use until further notice.
