The probability of releases from backup reservoirs to ensure an adequate drinking water supply in the Potomac River is higher than normal this year, according to the group that coordinates the three major water providers in the Washington, D.C. area.
“It’s going to be dry,” said Michael Nardolilli, executive director of the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin. “I think we’re going to have a dry, at least couple of weeks here.”
Asked to describe the current drought conditions, Nardolilli said: “We would classify this as a flash drought. It came up very quickly — we had plenty of water earlier in the year.”
The D.C. Aqueduct, which processes drinking water for D.C., Arlington County and the City of Falls Church, as well as the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, which serves Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, as well as Fairfax Water, which also serves Prince William County share up-river reservoirs, that could be released into the Potomac River.
“There’s plenty of water,” Nardolilli said. “However, we have to be very mindful of the fact that we’re going into the dry season of summer and fall, and so we have to just monitor the Potomac carefully.”
In fact, the ICPRB is engaged in daily drought monitoring, which is triggered when the flow of the Potomac River drops below 2,000 cubic feet per second at Point of Rocks, Maryland. The monitoring was needed in both 2023 and 2022.
While the region’s water supply is currently stable, Nardolilli said water is a resource that should always be used wisely.
“We don’t want to see it wasted — like if you had a leak, you should try to fix it.”
If drought conditions persist, the region’s water companies share three reservoirs.
The nearest is Little Seneca Reservoir, located in Black Hill Regional Park in Boyds, Maryland, in Montgomery County.
It would take about one day for water released into the Potomac to reach downstream intakes for Fairfax Water, WSSC Water and the Washington Aqueduct, and be processed as drinking water.
Miles upstream, the larger Jennings Randolph Lake, straddling Maryland and West Virginia, and the Savage River Reservoir, in northwest Maryland, can be tapped.
The last times releases were needed were 2010, 2002 and 1999.
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