LAUREL, Md. — The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission has delivered water and wastewater service to Maryland's Suburbs since 1918 under the same name.
But in its 101st year, the agency is moving ahead with a $900,000 plan to re-brand itself by changing its logo and adding the word "water" to its name.
Local leaders like Prince George's County Council Member Jolene Ivey has joined some customers in questioning the change.
"I don’t think most people care what the name of the company is," Prince George’s County Council member Jolene Ivey (D) told MarylandMatters this week. "They just want to pay less."
WSSC spokesman Chuck Brown said that the re-branding is intended to put the emphasis on the essential product that the WSSC delivers to 1.9 million suburbanites in Maryland -- namely water.
"We work 24-7-365 to deliver safe, clean, reliable water and the fact that we didn't have water in our name just didn't make sense to us," Brown said.
Brown said that the WSSC has gone through three previous makeovers in its history.
He added that the agency is launching an innovation effort to market its expertise to other utilities around the nation and world as a potential source of future revenue. Branding is important to that effort, Brown said.
The new name will be "WSSC Water," with a new logo emphasizing the life cycle of water in customer's lives and the environment.
Customers will being seeing the new look in the fall of this year, Brown said.