Rockville’s 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.
Plant operators actively monitor water quality to ensure safe levels of chlorine and corrosion control, which prevents lead and copper in distribution pipes from leaching into drinking water.
A project to upgrade the water treatment plant began in late 2021. The upgrades, which are expected to be completed later this year, are replacing aged electrical equipment, components that provide primary power to the plant and workspaces dating to the plant’s opening in 1958, as well as the main building’s roof and HVAC system.
“This project will provide the plant with modern electrical components and associated controls to ensure system reliability, safety, and capacity,” Craig L. Simoneau, the city’s director of public works, said in a letter introducing the report. “Modern laboratory facilities and occupied areas will provide code-compliant, safer spaces for employees.”
Projects scheduled to begin in 2023 include a chemical feed project that will replace chlorine gas with sodium hypochlorite (liquid chlorine) to provide a safer working environment for staff and neighbors near the plant.
To learn more about the source and quality of Rockville’s drinking water, visit www.rockvillemd.gov/annualwaterquality2023.