Pure Water DC · new in 2025
All of DC's drinking water comes from one river
Every drop the District drinks is drawn from the Potomac. There is no backup. Pure Water DC is the programme trying to fix that single point of failure.
The vulnerability
DC does not own its drinking water treatment. Water is drawn from the Potomac at Great Falls and Little Falls, treated by the US Army Corps of Engineers' Washington Aqueduct, and bought wholesale by DC Water for distribution.
That is a single source and a single treatment path for the capital city. A chemical spill upstream, a prolonged drought, a failure at the Aqueduct or a deliberate attack would leave the District without water and without an alternative. A 2024 study estimated potential economic losses of $15 billion in the first month of a major disruption.
The three approaches
Advanced water reuse. Purifying treated wastewater at Blue Plains up to drinking water standards. The water is already in the system; this makes it a resource rather than a discharge. Similar schemes operate in Orange County, California and in Singapore.
Protecting the current source. Better monitoring and safeguards upstream on the Potomac, and optimisation of existing treatment.
Storage. Adding local and regional emergency storage so a short interruption does not become a crisis.
$21 million in seed funding over three years, 2026–2028, with a Pure Water DC Discovery Center breaking ground in 2026 as a research and public education hub.
Why it connects to sewage
Advanced reuse turns Blue Plains from an endpoint into a source. That makes the plant's reliability — and the combined sewer system feeding it — a drinking water question as well as an environmental one.
Sources: DC Water Pure Water DC programme materials; regional water system assessments. Figures current to January 2026.