Protect your source water because our community depends on a reliable supply of safe, high-quality drinking water!

What is source water?

Source water is a raw, untreated supply of water – typically surface water or groundwater – used for current or potential future drinking water. For Fairfax Water customers, your source water is the Potomac River or Occoquan Reservoir.

What is source water protection?

Source water protection is a proactive approach to safeguarding, maintaining, or improving the quality and/or quantity of drinking water sources and their contributing areas.

Why is source water protection important?

Water utilities rely on sustainable sources of water that can be treated to provide reliable, high-quality drinking water. Source water protection is the first of several barriers to ensure safe drinking water, followed by other components of a multi-barrier approach that includes effective water treatment, secure distribution systems, and monitoring and evaluation.

Source water protection provides many benefits, including public health protection, watershed and ecosystem improvements, and socioeconomic benefits. It involves identifying potential threats to drinking water, assessing the risk associated with those threats, and establishing proactive measures that can help address them.

What can I do to help protect our source water?

There are many steps you can take to reduce pollution and protect source water.  Click the links below to learn more.

• Around the House
• In Your Lawn
• During the Winter - Winter salt and its impact on Source Water
• You can also learn more by visiting these local resources

Source Water Protection can be fun!  Check out the resources below to learn more. 

Be a source water protection hero--join the Water Ninjas and the STEAM team!  Read our Water Ninja Comicbook Series to learn more about drinking water and source water protection.

Protecting soil can also help protect source water quality.  Join Sammy Soil on a coloring book adventure. 

How does source water become tap water?  Click here to view a video of our water treatment process.  

Did You Know? A consistent supply of high-quality source water is safer, easier, and much more cost-effective to treat.