Rockville’s drinking water continues to earn high marks for safety and reliability, even as the city’s water treatment plant balances safety measures for staff and the city’s water infrastructure in the face of the COVID-19 emergency, the city’s Department of Public Works said in the Annual Drinking Water Quality Report.
Once again Rockville’s drinking water met or exceeded all federal water quality regulation limits in the report, released each July 1.
“COVID-19 is having a major impact on the City of Rockville, just as it has on the entire global population,” Craig Simoneau, the city’s director of public works, said in a letter introducing the report. “This unprecedented time has required us to implement additional steps to protect our dedicated, essential staff members and the city’s drinking water system.”
That includes reducing staffing levels to minimize potential exposure to the virus while maintaining round-the-clock monitoring of the city’s water supply. COVID-19 has not been detected in drinking water, and virus transmission is not a risk in treated drinking water. To learn more, visit RockvilleReports.com/rockvilles-water-and-the-coronavirus-covid-19.
Plant operators actively monitor water quality to ensure protective levels of chlorine and corrosion control, which prevents lead and copper in distribution pipes from leaching into drinking water. For their efforts, 2019 was the sixth consecutive year that plant operators received the Directors Award for voluntary participation in the Partnership for Safe Water. The award recognizes the competence of the city’s operators and their desire to go beyond regulatory standards to achieve the highest water quality for Rockville customers.
The city’s water treatment plant, on the banks of the Potomac River, serves 70% of Rockville, or approximately 13,000 accounts and 52,000 community members. The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission serves the remainder of the city.
To learn more about the source and quality of Rockville’s drinking water, visit www.rockvillemd.gov/annualwaterquality2020.