Abbreviation | WSSC Water |
---|---|
Formation | May 1, 1918 [1] |
Legal status | Political subdivision of the State of Maryland [2] |
Headquarters | 14501 Sweitzer Lane, Laurel, Maryland, U.S. 20707 |
Coordinates | 39°05′19″N76°53′48″W / 39.088736°N 76.896673°W |
Services | Montgomery county, Prince George's county, and part of Howard county, Maryland [2] |
Regina Y. Speed-Bost (Chair), T. Eloise Foster (Vice Chair), Fausto R. Bayonet, Howard A Denis, Lynnette D. Espy-Williams, Mark J. Smith | |
Kishia L. Powell [3] | |
Website | www |
The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC Water) is a bi-county political subdivision of the State of Maryland [2] that provides safe drinking water and wastewater treatment for Montgomery and Prince George's Counties in Maryland except for a few cities in both counties that continue to operate their own water facilities.
The Commission is one of the largest water and wastewater utilities in the United States. WSSC Water serves about 1.9 million people in an approximately 1,000-square-mile (2,600 km2) area. It owns and manages over 11,000 miles (18,000 km) of water and sewer mains. [4]
A bi-county agency, WSSC Water has extensive regulatory functions. It promulgates and enforces the plumbing code for its jurisdiction as well as reviews and approves contract plans for extensions of water and sewer mains. The agency operates 3 reservoirs (plus shared access to a fourth reservoir), 2 drinking water filtration plants, and 6 water resource recovery facilities. It also collects wastewater which is treated at the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant (operated by DC Water) in Washington, D.C. [5] [6] [7]
Plant | Location | Size [lower-alpha 1] | Discharges to |
---|---|---|---|
Damascus WRRF | Damascus | 1.50 mgd | Magruder Branch |
Hyattstown WRRF | Hyattstown | 0.015 mgd | Little Bennett Creek |
Parkway WRRF | Laurel | 7.50 mgd | Patuxent River |
Piscataway WRRF | Accokeek | 30.00 mgd | Piscataway Creek |
Seneca WRRF | Germantown | 26.00 mgd | Great Seneca Creek |
Western Branch WRRF | Upper Marlboro | 30.00 mgd | Western Branch |
Blue Plains (DC Water and Sewer Authority) | Washington, D.C. | 169.90 mgd [lower-alpha 2] | Potomac River |
WSSC Water is overseen by six commissioners, three from Montgomery County and three from Prince George's County. These commissioners are appointed by their respective county executives with the approval of the county councils. The day-to-day operations are the responsibility of a general manager/chief executive officer, who supervises a staff of over 1,700. The Commission's budget information can be found here. The agency's headquarters office is located in Laurel, Maryland.
In 1911, Asa Phillips, sanitary engineer for the District of Columbia, convened a meeting with local residents to discuss the problem of Montgomery and Prince George's counties polluting the streams that flowed into the District. The pollution of the streams was a major health concern for the residents of the District of Columbia. The people at the meeting advised the Maryland General Assembly that a study of the problem was needed. The Assembly passed a bill authorizing the Governor of Maryland to appoint a study commission in 1912. [10]
As a result of the recommendation of the study commission, Maryland Delegate Paul Waters introduced a bill to establish the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, and the General Assembly passed the bill on April 8, 1916. WSSC Water was originally created to study the drainage situation in Montgomery and Prince George's counties and to recommend the best possible sewage system. [1]
In 1918, the Commission released its report, written by Robert B. Morse and Harry Hall, to the General Assembly. The report recommended establishing a permanent Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission as a bi-county agency for water and sewage. The report included a plan for construction for the next 22 years. T. Howard Duckett drafted a law officially establishing WSSC Water as a permanent bi-county agency. Following lobbying by E. Brooke Lee, the law was passed, effective May 1, 1918. William T.S. Curtis of Montgomery County, Emory H. Bogley of Montgomery County, and Duckett of Prince George's County were named commissioners. [10]
Duckett visited Elizabeth, New Jersey, which had financed its sewage plan by having a front-foot benefit charge and a land tax, with the house connections installed at the cost of each property owner. WSSC Water requested a similar arrangement in Maryland, and the county governments certified the levy in March 1919, using the rate of $0.015 per $100 of assessed property. [10]
In 1919 WSSC Water purchased the Takoma Park water system, which drew water from Sligo Creek. To provide additional capacity, the commission bought a used water filtration plant from Culpeper, Virginia, and installed the system along the Northwest Branch near Burnt Mills. This facility was replaced with a new system, the Robert B. Morse Water Filtration Plant, in the 1930s. Later, a pipeline was built to bring water from the Patuxent River at Mink Hollow to the filtration plant in Burnt Mills. Triadelphia Reservoir was built on the Patuxent and opened in 1943. [10]
In 1944, the Patuxent River Filtration Plant was built near Laurel. The T. Howard Duckett Dam and Reservoir was completed in 1952, adding more capacity. [10] The 2023 average delivery level for the Patuxent plant is 110 mgd. [11] The Potomac River drinking water plant opened in 1961, with an initial capacity of 30 mgd. [12] The 2023 average delivery level is 280 mgd. [11]
WSSC Water connected its trunk sewers near Washington, DC into the Blue Plains system beginning in the 1930s, as the treatment plant began operation. The commission built its first sewage treatment plant in Bladensburg in the 1940s; in the 1950s this plant was closed as additional connections were made to the Blue Plains system. Most of the WSSC sewers in Montgomery County are now served by the Blue Plains plant, except for the northern portion of the county, which is served by the Seneca plant, which opened in the 1970s. In Prince George's County, the Parkway plant was built in the 1950s, followed by the Piscataway and Western Branch plants in the 1960s. [12]
The Patuxent River is a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay in the state of Maryland. There are three main river drainages for central Maryland: the Potomac River to the west passing through Washington, D.C., the Patapsco River to the northeast passing through Baltimore, and the Patuxent River between the two. The 908-square-mile (2,352 km2) Patuxent watershed had a rapidly growing population of 590,769 in 2000. It is the largest and longest river entirely within Maryland, and its watershed is the largest completely within the state.
A sanitary sewer is an underground pipe or tunnel system for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings to a sewage treatment plant or disposal.
Wastewater treatment is a process which removes and eliminates contaminants from wastewater. It thus converts it into an effluent that can be returned to the water cycle. Once back in the water cycle, the effluent creates an acceptable impact on the environment. It is also possible to reuse it. This process is called water reclamation. The treatment process takes place in a wastewater treatment plant. There are several kinds of wastewater which are treated at the appropriate type of wastewater treatment plant. For domestic wastewater the treatment plant is called a Sewage Treatment. Municipal wastewater or sewage are other names for domestic wastewater. For industrial wastewater, treatment takes place in a separate Industrial wastewater treatment, or in a sewage treatment plant. In the latter case it usually follows pre-treatment. Further types of wastewater treatment plants include Agricultural wastewater treatment and leachate treatment plants.
The Anacostia River is a river in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States. It flows from Prince George's County in Maryland into Washington, D.C., where it joins with the Washington Channel and ultimately empties into the Potomac River at Buzzard Point. It is about 8.7 miles (14.0 km) long. The name "Anacostia" derives from the area's early history as Nacotchtank, a settlement of Necostan or Anacostan Native Americans on the banks of the Anacostia River.
Fairfax County Water Authority is the main water company in the Northern Virginia region of the United States, and one of the four major water providers in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Fairfax Water serves most of the populated areas of Fairfax County, and also serves neighboring communities of Alexandria, Prince William County, Virginia and Loudoun County, Virginia through an interconnection with Virginia American Water, which purchases water through wholesale agreements. It serves drinking water to 1.5 million people.
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.
The Millard H. Robbins, Jr. Water Reclamation Plant, which is operated by the Upper Occoquan Service Authority (UOSA), is located in Centreville, Virginia and it was formerly known as the Upper Occoquan Sewage Authority. UOSA serves the western portions of Fairfax and Prince William Counties, and the Cities of Manassas and Manassas Park. The sewage treatment plant includes primary-secondary treatment and the following advanced wastewater treatment processes: chemical clarification, two-stage recarbonation with intermediate settling, multimedia filtration, granular activated carbon adsorption, chlorination for disinfection and dechlorination. The plant’s rated capacity is 54 million US gallons (200,000 m3) per day (mgd).
The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD), originally known as the Sanitary District of Chicago, is a special-purpose district chartered to operate in Cook County, Illinois since 1889. Although its name may imply otherwise, it is not a part of the City of Chicago's local government but is created by Illinois state government with an elected Board of Commissioners. The MWRD's main purposes are the reclamation and treatment of wastewater and flood water abatement in Cook County to protect the health and safety of citizens and of area waterways. In 1900, the District notably reversed the flow of the Chicago River, and it is currently involved in the large multi-decade construction of the "Deep Tunnel," Tunnel and Reservoir Plan (TARP).
Sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) is a condition in which untreated sewage is discharged from a sanitary sewer into the environment prior to reaching sewage treatment facilities. When caused by rainfall it is also known as wet weather overflow. Causes of sanitary sewer overflows include: Blockage of sewer lines, infiltration/Inflow of excessive stormwater into sewer lines during heavy rainfall, malfunction of pumping station lifts or electrical power failure, broken sewer lines. Prevention of such overflow events involves regular maintenance and timely upgrades of infrastructure.
Little Seneca Lake is a reservoir located near the Boyds community in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Rocky Gorge Reservoir is located on the Patuxent River in Howard, Montgomery, and Prince George's counties in Maryland, between Laurel and Burtonsville. The reservoir was created in 1952 by the construction of the T. Howard Duckett Dam on the Patuxent. The dam is visible from Interstate 95 near milemarker 34. Because of its close association with a dam by the name, the reservoir is sometimes called the T. Howard Duckett Reservoir. It has a surface area of 773 acres (313 ha). The reservoir is maintained as a drinking water source by the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC).
Triadelphia Reservoir is located on the Patuxent River, in Howard County and Montgomery County, Maryland near the town of Brookeville.
The Philadelphia Water Department is the public water utility for the City of Philadelphia. PWD provides integrated potable water, wastewater, and stormwater services for Philadelphia and some communities in Bucks, Delaware and Montgomery counties. PWD is a municipal agency of the City of Philadelphia, and is seated in rented space at the Jefferson Tower in the Market East area of Center City, Philadelphia.
George Warren Fuller was an American sanitary engineer who was also trained in bacteriology and chemistry. His career extended from 1890 to 1934 and he was responsible for important innovations in water and wastewater treatment. He designed and built the first modern water filtration plant, and he designed and built the first chlorination system that disinfected a U.S. drinking water supply. In addition, he performed groundbreaking engineering work on sewage treatment facilities in the U.S. He was President of both the American Water Works Association and the American Public Health Association, and he was recognized internationally as an expert civil and sanitary engineer.
Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant in Washington, D.C., is the largest advanced wastewater treatment plant in the world. The facility is operated by the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority. The plant opened in 1937 as a primary treatment facility, and advanced treatment capacity was added in the 1970s and 1980s. The effluent that leaves Blue Plains is discharged to the Potomac River and meets some of the most stringent permit limits in the United States.
The Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) is a regional water authority in the U.S. state of Michigan. It provides drinking water treatment, drinking water distribution, wastewater collection, and wastewater treatment services for the Southeast Michigan communities, including Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties, among others. GLWA overlays a majority of the water and sewer assets which were formerly operated and maintained by the Detroit Water Sewer District (DWSD) prior to the bankruptcy of the City of Detroit, Michigan.
Burnt Mills is an census designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. Per the 2020 Census, the population was 3,592.
The Moyaone Reserve is a neighborhood located within Piscataway Park in Accokeek. The neighborhood was given National Register of Historic Places status in 2020 and is within the historic viewshed of Mount Vernon. It is split between Prince George's County, Maryland and Charles County, Maryland. The name Moyaone is derived from name of the town Moyaone, the major town of the Piscataway Native American tribe. The archaeological remains of Moyaone are at the Accokeek Creek Site, within Piscataway Park.
The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission Police Department is a small full service police department located in the U.S. state of Maryland. Its main purpose is to protect water that runs through and around the water treatment plants operated by the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC). They also help the WSSC in traffic control, patrol parks, and assist other local agencies in calls for service as necessary. The WSSC is a bi-county government agency that serves Montgomery County and Prince George's County, both bordering the US federal district of Washington, D.C.. The police have full jurisdiction within those counties as well as the watershed area of Howard County.