The D.C. Water and Sewer Authority is warning District residents to ignore unsolicited water-testing kits that a yet-unidentified company has been offering residents of Northeast Washington. The kit, essentially a plastic bottle, arrives via a door hanger with little information, except to fill the bottle and wait for it to be picked up within 24 hours, said Rich Giani, WASA water quality director. Some time later, a salesman calls with warnings of high lead or chlorine levels and an offer: Buy this newfangled, $2,000 reverse-osmosis water treatment system.

“We have at least said we are not endorsing this at all,” Giani said. “It’s more of a scare tactic. It’s alarming people and they’re calling us. If there was a [water] problem, we’d be reporting it.”