District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority

The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water) provides drinking water, sewage collection, and sewage treatment for Washington, D.C. The utility also provides wholesale wastewater treatment services to several adjoining municipalities in Maryland and Virginia, and maintains more than 9,000 public fire hydrants in Washington, D.C. DC Water was founded in 1996 when the city government and the U.S. federal government established it as an independent authority of the city's government. DC Water provides more than 600,000 residents, 16.6 million annual visitors, and 700,000 people employed in the District of Columbia with water, sewage collection, and treatment. The agency also provides wholesale wastewater treatment for 1.6 million people in Montgomery and Prince George's counties in Maryland, and Fairfax and Loudoun counties in Virginia. In 1852, Congress commissioned the construction of an aqueduct system to provide a reliable supply of drinking water to the city from the Potomac River. The US Army Corps of Engineers designed and built the Washington Aqueduct, which began full operation in 1864. Filtration plants were added to the system in the 20th century. In 1938, the District of Columbia built a sewage treatment plant in the Blue Plains area, at the southernmost tip of DC. The cost was $4 million. The plant was built to stop raw sewage from entering the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers. At that time, the plant was built to treat sewage from a population of 650,000, with a capacity of 100 million gallons per day (mgd). By 1943, the population grew to 1.5 million people, contributing much more sewage, and upgrades to the plant were necessary. Secondary treatment units were added in 1959, with an expanded discharge capacity of 240 mgd. In the 1970s a major expansion commenced that led to construction of advanced wastewater treatment components, and by 1983 the capacity was 300 mgd. In addition to Washington, the plant serves several adjacent communities in Maryland and Virginia.