Today is Earth Day and hundreds of millions are celebrating. DC Water joins the celebration, today and every day.

“Each day DC Water is working to protect the health of our waterways and the people who live in the region,” said DC Water General Manager George S. Hawkins. “DC Water provides safe drinking water, collects the water after millions of people use it, and cleanses it before returning it to the environment, while also reclaiming the nutrients for beneficial reuse.”

In addition to these daily critical services, DC Water is investing in state-of-the-art technology on the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant. Three massive environmental projects, at a cost of more than $4 billion, are underway, to:
• significantly reduce combined sewer overflows,
• further reduce nitrogen in the water discharged back to the Potomac River, and return the nutrients back to the land, and
• create energy from the wastewater process using anaerobic digestion.

DC Water educates the public on conservation and environmental protection throughout the year with school programs, tap water outreach, and special events. During the month of April, DC Water is sharing information about water conservation at several venues. This week DC Water will be at the following locations:

U.S. Department of Commerce
1401 Constitution Avenue, N.W.
Wednesday, April 24
11 a.m. – 1 p.m.

U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Thursday, April 25
10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

In addition, DC Water participated in the Anacostia Watershed Society’s Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling’s “Earth Day, Fun Day” and a river clean-up event hosted by the Alice Ferguson Foundation, providing volunteers and skimmer boats to clean the waterways.

For more information about DC Water’s outreach activities, please contact Emanuel Briggs, Manager, Public Outreach at 202-787-2003 or Emanuel.Briggs@dcwater.com.