Boil water advisory lifted for all of DC, Arlington County – WTOP News

A boil water advisory for D.C. and Arlington County, Virginia, has been lifted after over nine hours, essentially affecting the entirety of both jurisdictions.

A boil water advisory for all of D.C. and most of Arlington County, Virginia, has been lifted — several hours after thousands of residents were urged not to drink water from their taps without boiling it first.

In a news release Thursday morning, D.C. Water said it confirmed that drinking water provided by the Washington Aqueduct “never deviated” from Environmental Protection Agency standards and all tap water can be used as of 7:30 a.m. Thursday.

D.C. Water had issued the boil water advisory late Wednesday night after officials said there had been a drop in water supply from the Washington Aqueduct along with concerns about increased cloudiness — known as turbidity — in the water.

In addition to all of D.C., the advisory affected nearly all of Arlington County, including the Pentagon, Arlington National Cemetery and Reagan National Airport.

“Under advice from the Washington Aqueduct, DC Water issued the precautionary boil water advisory as a conservative measure to protect public health, and we sincerely appreciate our customers’ patience while we took necessary precautions to ensure the safety of the tap water we deliver,” D.C. Water said in a statement Thursday.

The Arlington County government, which issued its own water advisory Thursday, announced it had also been lifted. Only a small portion of Arlington called the Willston Pressure Zone, which borders Fairfax County near the intersection of McKinley Road and Wilson Boulevard, was not impacted by the advisory.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the Washington Aqueduct, is scheduled to hold a news conference on the matter Thursday morning.

D.C. Water said the precautionary boil water advisory began Wednesday at around 9 p.m.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the Aqueduct, said in a statement that it told D.C. Water of issues with elevated cloudiness in the water supply, which was caused by increased algae blooms in the Potomac River.

John Lisle, a spokesperson with D.C. Water told WTOP that the advisory had been taken out of an abundance of caution to allow fire emergency personnel access to water, especially on a big holiday like the Fourth of July, and to allow enough water to flush out of the system.

“Turbidity can be an indicator of (poor) water quality. And so because of that it was determined that the safest thing to do was issue the boil water advisory,” Lisle said.

While the cloudy water itself has no health effects, it can interfere with disinfection measures and allow microbes to more easily grow, D.C. Water said.

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