DC water confirmed safe to drink after precautionary boil water advisory

Water in Washington, D.C., has been confirmed safe to drink Thursday after the district faced a boil water advisory a day before.

“All DC Water customers under the precautionary boil water advisory can use tap water for all purposes after it was confirmed that drinking water provided by the Washington Aqueduct never deviated from U.S. EPA established water quality standards as had been anticipated,” the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water) said in a release Thursday.

DC Water issued the advisory late Wednesday for every one of its customers in the district, as well as the Pentagon, Arlington National Cemetery and Reagan National Airport, it said in a release. It called it a “precautionary notice to all customers to boil water that may be ingested due to water of unknown quality.”

“This advisory will remain in place until follow-up testing confirms the water is safe to drink,” the release continued.

Arlington County also issued a boil water advisory “for customers across the County” Wednesday “due to water clarity issues found at the Washington Aqueduct, the County’s source for drinking water,” according to an article on its website.

The Washington Aqueduct produces an average of 135 million gallons of water per day, supplying drinking water to roughly 1 million people in D.C., Arlington County and other parts of northern Virginia, according to the Baltimore District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which runs it.

“The Washington Aqueduct has recommended issuance of a Boil Water Advisory for the District of Columbia and portions of Northern Virginia due to elevated turbidity levels in water supply caused by increases in algae blooms in the Potomac River,” the Baltimore District said in a news release Wednesday.

“Blooms generally occur during high temperatures, causing conditions in water where nutrient levels are high,” the release continued.

“Turbidity, a measure of water’s cloudiness or clarity, plays a crucial role in assessing water quality. It is an important factor in water quality, as it can interfere with the effectiveness of water treatment process and impact the color, taste, and smell of drinking water,” the release added.

— Updated at 9:02 a.m.