WSSC Water has lifted its request from 1.9 million customers in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties in Maryland to conserve their water usage in order to save it for essential use only.
The request was prompted by a rash of dozens of water main breaks and leaks in the D.C. area.
WSSC’s system was “losing a lot of water,” Lyn Riggins, a spokesperson at WSSC Water told WTOP on Sunday.
The water provider said Monday night demands on its water distribution system, along with pressure, have stabilized and water storage levels have returned to normal.
Riggins said there had been about 175 water main breaks and leaks in the first 12 days of January. She said 150 of those were just in the last five days.
Asked why the series of water main breaks seemed to be hitting so hard, Riggins told WTOP the sudden drop in water temperature from the Potomac River — the source of the WSSC’s water supply — plunged from 46 degrees at the beginning of the month to 32 degrees by Monday morning. And pipes in the system, Riggins said, “are shocked” by the sudden drop in temperature.
Between 9:15 a.m. and 11 a.m. Monday, the number of water main breaks in the WSSC system jumped from 63 to 69. Riggins said the number of breaks could continue to fluctuate as crews worked to repair them.
“There is a lot of work to be done,” Riggins said. “We have crews all over both counties working around the clock.”
Customers were urged to contact WSSC Water’s Emergency Services Center at (301) 206-4002 to report any running water or if they smell chlorine, which is used to disinfect drinking water.
Reports could also be made via the WSSC Water Mobile App using the report a problem feature.
WSSC has 5900 miles of water mains across Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties, the two largest counties in the state of Maryland. Riggins said 40% of those pipes are 50 years old or older. The main that broke on Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda last week, said Riggins, was 93 years old.
WTOP’s Kate Ryan contributed to this report.
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