DC Water

Washington, District of Columbia

DC Water turns the most anxiety-inducing question — “do I have a lead pipe?” — into something a resident can actually answer, with a scratch-and-magnet test matrix and annotated photos of lead, galvanized iron, copper and brass pipes that no other report attempts. It backs that with voluntary PFAS testing against the new federal limits. It remains a PDF, which is the main ceiling on it.

• Corrected September 13, 2026: Each scorecard now names and links the exact report edition we scored, and notes any newer edition the utility has published. Some report links had pointed to pages that have since moved on to a newer edition.
• Corrected September 13, 2026: The scorecard described annotated basement photos. The report's pipe-identification photos are annotated pictures of lead, galvanized iron, copper and brass pipes, and the report does not present them as basement photos. Its timeliness note claimed a complete regulated panel; the report's tables list the contaminants that were detected.
• Corrected September 13, 2026: Verdicts that named one factor as the only thing holding a report back now name it as the main one, matching sub-scores in which more than one pillar is below 5.
• Corrected September 13, 2026: Mount Pleasant Waterworks' transparency score changed from 5 to 4, moving it from #2 to #5 (still Gold, now 80/100); Tucson Water, DC Water and Denver Water each move up one place. Its report prints its PFAS results, including PFOS at 6.6 ppt, in a table that gives no limits and says such compounds may not have health-based standards, without mentioning the EPA's 4 ppt limit that result is above. The top transparency score calls for results shown against the limits and problems disclosed plainly.