Drinking Water & Drought Monitoring

The majority of metropolitan Washington’s drinking water comes from the free-flowing Potomac River where there is an active partnership focused on protecting the region’s water supply. COG serves as a forum for communication and coordination among local and state governments, water supply utilities, the media, and general public in the event of serious droughts or other water supply emergencies. COG provides comprehensive and up-to-date information to enable the region to respond to potential and actual water supply and drought conditions as well as water security issues. COG’s Drought Coordination Committee addresses water supply and drought management issues. The Metropolitan Washington Water Supply and Drought Awareness Response Plan and the regional Water Supply Emergency Plan, developed by COG and its members, serve as major resources to support this work.

COG integrates efforts with regional homeland security issues, via the regional Water Security Work Group, given the linkages between drinking water and source water protection security issues and drought issues. COG also coordinates and manages regional water security activities in areas such as modeling, monitoring, redundancy and resiliency, operational planning, identification of best practices, facility hardening, mutual aid, and training and exercises. COG works with its members to assess risks, threats, and vulnerabilities of the region’s drinking source water, drinking water distribution systems, and wastewater collection and treatment systems.