travel. Instead, he rides Marine One from the White House lawn to Joint Base Andrews, located just beyond the city's limits in Maryland. There, he takes Air Force One to his destination. The air base was originally built in 1942. From 1942 to 2009, it was solely an Air Force Base, but became a joint Air Force and Naval base in 2009, when Andrews Air Force Base and Naval Air Facility Washington were merged. Utilities The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority, also known as WASA or D.C. Water, is an independent authority of the Washington, D.C. government that provides drinking water and wastewater collection in the city. WASA purchases water from the historic Washington Aqueduct, which is operated by the Army Corps of Engineers. The water, sourced from the Potomac River, is treated and stored in the city's Dalecarlia, Georgetown, and McMillan reservoirs. The aqueduct provides drinking water for a total of 1.1 million people in the district and Virginia, including Arlington, Falls Church, and a portion of Fairfax County. The authority also provides sewage treatment services for an additional 1.6 million people in four surrounding Maryland and Virginia counties. Pepco is the city's electric utility and services 793,000 customers in the district and suburban Maryland. An 1889 law prohibits overhead wires within much of the historic City of Washington. As a result, all power lines and telecommunication cables are located underground in downtown Washington, and traffic signals are placed at the edge of the street. A plan announced in 2013 would bury an additional of primary power lines throughout the district. Washington Gas is the city's natural gas utility and serves more than a million customers in the district and its suburbs. Incorporated by Congress in 1848, the company installed the city's first gas lights in the Capitol, White House, and along Pennsylvania Avenue. Crime Some 67,000 residents, about 10% of the population, are ex-convicts. In 2021 and 2022, the number of homicides continued on an upward trend, both years exceeding 200, a significant rise from previous lows. In 2012, D.C.'s annual murder count had dropped to 88, the lowest total since 1961. The city was once described as the "murder capital" of the United States during the early 1990s. The number of murders peaked in 1991 at 479, but the level of violence then began to decline significantly. In 2016, the district's Metropolitan Police Department tallied