Rockville

Rockville’s water once again met or exceeded all federal water quality regulations limits, the city’s Department of Public Works said in the Annual Drinking Water Quality Report released July 1. The city’s water treatment plant, on the banks of the Potomac River, serves 70% of Rockville, or approximately 13,000 accounts and 52,000 community members. The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission serves the remainder of the city.

Plant operators actively monitor water quality to ensure safe levels of chlorine and corrosion control, which prevents lead and copper in distribution pipes from leaching into drinking water. A project to upgrade the water treatment plant began in late 2021. The upgrades, which are expected to be completed later this year, are replacing aged electrical equipment, components that provide primary power to the plant and workspaces dating to the plant’s opening in 1958, as well as the main building’s roof and HVAC system.

Rockville’s Mayor and City Council will once again proclaim September as National Recovery Month, part of their continuing campaign to shine a spotlight on the nationwide impact of opioid addiction. The focus of the Rockville Goes Purple campaign includes raising awareness, honoring those in recovery and lost to overdose, reducing stigma, and providing resources and education.

The Mayor and Council will issue the proclamation Aug. 7 at their final meeting before summer recess. Several events are being planned to mark National Recovery Month. Purple lights will once again illuminate City Hall, Rockville City Police Department headquarters and other city facilities; the Mayor and Council will hold a ceremony to recognize National Recovery Month prior to their Sept. 11 meeting; and members of the Mayor and Council will attend Montgomery County’s International Overdose Awareness Day on Aug. 31.

The city is developing its first Pedestrian Master Plan and wants community members to help make Rockville a safer place for walking and rolling. The plan will guide the development, construction and maintenance of safe, convenient and equitable walking and rolling facilities across the city. “Walking and rolling” describes forms of mobility that do not include motor vehicles or bicycles. This includes walking; running; walking with the use of a white cane, audio-assistance device or walker; or using a wheelchair, knee-walker, mobility scooter or stroller.

Learn more about development of Rockville’s Pedestrian Master Plan and find a draft for review at engagerockville.com/pedestrian-master-plan. The city wants to hear from the community about the plan. What in the plan works well to advance walking and rolling in Rockville? What changes are still needed? What is missing?

Rockville welcomed Joyce Tian, pictured in the Mayor and Council chambers, winner of the “If I Were Mayor…” essay contest, to City Hall on May 25 (video below).

Tian, a fourth-grader at Beall Elementary School, earned the right to serve as Rockville’s Mayor for a Day, doing an on-camera interview with Rockville 11, visiting the Rockville City Police Department, the Department of Public Works Equipment Show and Croydon Creek Nature Center, and having lunch with Mayor Bridget Donnell Newton. She was also recognized at the May 22 Mayor and Council meeting, where she read her winning essay.

The Mayor and Council and the Environment Commission honored two community members in June with Environmental Excellence Awards recognizing contributions to Rockville’s environmental health and sustainability.

Rishi Iyer, a student at Thomas Wootton High School, received the Environmental Excel-lence Award for Outstanding Education and Academic Achievement for developing an online carbon footprint tool for Montgomery County Public Schools in Rockville and beyond. (“Rockville Reports” readers might remember Iyer as Rockville’s “Mayor for a Day” in 2016.)

Per the City of Rockville: An ordinance that will require specific rental properties in the city to be tested for the presence of radon will go into effect Sept. 27. Radon is an invisible, odorless, tasteless, radioactive gas found in soil and rock, formed by the natural decay of uranium. While no immediate symptoms signal its presence, exposure at high levels can cause cancer. Testing is the only way to know a home’s radon levels.

The testing requirement will apply to all units in a rental facility in contact with the ground, including basement apartments and any dwelling unit with a basement, crawl spaces or units built on a slab in contact with the ground. Landlords will be required to conduct a radon test before leasing a qualifying dwelling unit.