City Continues to Provide Safe, Reliable Drinking Water In a Year of Uncertainty

In a year when safety and reliability were as important as ever, Rockville’s drinking water once again met or exceeded all federal water quality regulations limits, the city’s Department of Public Works said in the Annual Drinking Water Quality Report released July 1.

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.

“As the COVID-19 pandemic stretched into 2021, the city continued to balance the safety of staff with the necessity of maintaining operations at the water treatment plant,” Craig L. Simoneau, the city’s director of public works, said in a letter introducing the report. “We reduced staffing levels to minimize potential exposure to the virus while maintaining round-the-clock monitoring of the city’s water supply.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “There is no evidence showing anyone has gotten COVID-19 through drinking water, recreational water, or wastewater.” Learn more at www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/index.html.

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, 2020 was the seventh 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 is conducting lead and copper testing this summer and anticipates continued compliance with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules for acceptable levels of lead and copper in drinking water. Results will appear on the city’s website and in next year’s water quality report.

To learn more about the source and quality of Rockville’s drinking water, visit www.rockvillemd.gov/annualwaterquality2021.