The District runs on a series of tubes, and D.C. Water is responsible for maintaining them. Last week, D.C. Water — formerly (and still legally) D.C. Water and Sewer Authority — brought in some bloggers to explain how those tubes work. Better still, D.C. Water explained how the utility is making sure customers know how they work.

Here’s an example: In December of last year, Shepherd Park experienced a drop in water pressure. As D.C. Water general manager George Hawkins explained at the blogger roundtable, a pump backup such as the one Shepherd Park experienced can lead to water flowing from residences and other water customers back into the system — which can lead to leeching through the pipes. So D.C. Water sounded the alarm, issuing a precautionary boil water advisory, before it had one iota of evidence that any leeching was happening.

Transparency — be it for water quality levels or utility pricing increases — is a factor that Hawkins emphasized as one reason behind the rebranding campaign. Certainly, the utility would like to shed its reputation for lead-enhanced drinking water. If you don’t know, D.C.’s water lead levels have fallen below federal standards for quite some time. (Lead may still enter your drinking water through the pipes in your home, there at the consumer end, mind you. Don’t put away your Brita filter.) The more difficult problem D.C. Water/WASA faced was repairing its reputation for obscuring problems rather than solving them.