WSSC water filtration plant returns to normal operations after power issue
A water filtration plant that supplies water to millions of people in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties is back to normal operations more than a week after a power outage disrupted its systems.
The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission said Wednesday it fully restored power at the Potomac Water Filtration Plant, WSSC’s largest plant.
A power outage at the plant last Tuesday affected the plant’s ability to operate for most of the day. WSSC issued an alert to 1.9 million customers to only use water for essential needs.
Pepco restored power that day, but an additional electrical issue kept the plant from returning to normal.
Officials lifted the essential water use alert last Wednesday evening. WSSC said drinking water remains safe and there are no restrictions on water use.
A Maryland water plant resumed operations, but WSSC customers remain advised to only use water for essentials. News4 spoke with Lyn Riggins from WSSC.
The plant has two power feeds and can operate fully with either one. But WSSC said one feed was taken out of service in mid-September for routine maintenance with Pepco, meaning there was no working backup when the second power feed had issues and failed about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday.
“Normally, we do have two sources. We have redundancy and resiliency for this very reason,” Lyn Riggins, a spokesperson for WSSC Water, previously told News4. “[One power feed] needed to come down a couple weeks ago for routine maintenance and now we have an issue with the other one. So, that is why we’re in this situation.”
Pepco said it worked with WSSC to restore operations, and its initial findings showed an issue with WSSC equipment caused the outage.
The feed taken down for Pepco maintenance was restored by noon Tuesday, but internal electrical issues prevented the plant from immediately restarting, WSSC Deputy Manager of Mission Support David McDonough said.
WSSC told News4 the power issue was not the result of a cyberattack nor any bad actors.
The plant draws water straight from the Potomac River and produces between 100 and 120 million gallons of drinking water per day, WSSC said.
