The Waters of Life

 is a Fallout 3 quest. It is also a Xbox 360/PC achievement and a PlayStation 3 Trophy.

The quest centers around the reactivation of the abandoned Project Purity, a water filtering facility set up 19 years before at the Jefferson Memorial in an attempt to bring large quantities of clean water to the Capital Wastes. James and Dr. Li were unsuccessful originally, but after meeting with Stanislaus Braun in Vault 112 (Tranquility Lane), he believes he has the solution.

Go to the Rivet City Science Lab / Join the Scientists at Project Purity
Your father is going back to Rivet City; you can choose to follow him or let him go on his own and meet him later. Either way, he'll run there while you're close to him and walk while you aren't, but will get there eventually.

When you arrive at the Rivet City Science Lab, your father convinces Dr. Li to reactivate Project Purity. After talking to him, he asks you to meet him and the scientists there. Pack your things, stock up on chems, and go make your way to the memorial.

Clear Project Purity of any remaining Mutant Threat
Your Dad instructs you to first clear out the project area. You should have killed most of the Super Mutants in the Gift Shop area during the Scientific Pursuits quest, however you must also go to the basement and clear out the Mutants there. Your objectives will update when all have been killed.

Return to your Dad, and escort him and the scientists into the control room.

If you've already cleared out the Jefferson Memorial completely, your father and the team will go straight to the Rotunda, bypassing the preliminary pep-talk.

Routine Maintenance
Once your father arrives at the control room, he asks you to carry out some routine maintenance missions to bring the project back online.
 * Turn on Flood Control Pump Power - Simply activate the control in the basement.
 * Get the Fuses from Dad / Replace Damaged Fuses - Return to your father to get new fuses, and then return to the basement and activate the fuse box to replace the fuses.
 * Boot up the mainframe / Speak with Dad over intercom - Activate the Mainframe, then talk though one of the intercoms--your father will send you off to remove some blockages in a pipe.

Note: When getting directions on the intercom from your Dad he might tell you that you're on the right level. Although the basement has stairs and different "levels" or flights as such he does not distinguish between these but refer to the whole basement complex, i.e. from the door labeled Basement in the memorial. This can be a bit confusing.

Evil characters with the Contract Killer perk can obtain infinite Ears from the Lab Assistant, Dr. Li, and your father. Knock them out, then wait until they get up and pickpocket them. As long as they don't catch you, this can be done indefinitely.

Drain the Intake Pipes
Once inside the pipe, you arrive at a section where a locked door prevents you from going further. On the right is the valve to activate. As soon as you activate the valve, you will witness the arrival of Enclave soldiers in a Vertibird.

It is possible to engage the soldiers exiting the craft though I'm not sure if it effects the fight back at all (I'd say no). A VATS sniper rifle headshot got the attention of 3, though not all, of them.

Return to the Control Room
Fight your way back to the control room, dispatching any power-armored Enclave soldiers in your path to reach your father. When you arrive at the control room, Dr. Li is locked out of the main area, while Janice Kaplinski, James, Colonel Autumn and two Enclave soldiers are locked in. You are forced to watch Autumn execute Janice to get James to give up control of the project and help Enclave scientists get it online. James admits defeat and heads over to the controls, apparently obeying Autumn's orders. Instead, he uses the controls to flood the area with radiation, killing the Enclave soldiers and incapacitating Colonel Autumn. You see your father one last time at the glass, before he says "run...." and collapses dead.

Note: You can get into the locked area before the emergency door closes, but you will be stuck inside and the conversation will stop if you interact with James or Col. Autumn.

Escort Doctor Li to the evacuation point & Taft Tunnel
You must then escort Dr. Li and the remaining scientists (they do not have to survive) through the sewers via an emergency secret exit. Inside you will face feral ghouls and plenty of Enclave soldiers. In the entrance of the second section of the tunnels (Taft Tunnel), Li will stop and demand medical aid for Garza, who has a heart condition. You can give her 5 stimpacks to help him, or try to convince her to leave him behind. There is also the option to convince Dr. Li to use 3 units of Buffout, which she will use to drug Garza to keep him moving. You can also simply murder Garza; talk to a disgusted Li afterwards to get her to move again.

If you don't wish to leave or kill Garza or you don't have Buffout or high speech craft, it is possible to continue along the corridors by yourself and procure 5 Stimpacks. They are in 2 locations, the first is an abandoned operating theater which is to the left when the corridor forks off not long after Garza has to stop. The second location is at the very end of the corridors, directly behind the Brotherhood of Steel barricade, in a first aid container.

Of course, if Garza didn't survive to escape with you, this is bypassed entirely.

Daniel Agincourt can be given a pistol if you ask him to help.

Before you reach the Brotherhood of Steel guy at the end of the tunnel and his lovable turret, ghouls will come in full force. They have 2 glowing ones and plenty of regular ghouls and roamers so don't attract to much attention.

At the end of the tunnel, you arrive at the Brotherhood of Steel Citadel, completing the quest and leading immediately into Picking up the Trail. If you gave Agincourt a pistol, it's likely he'll hang back to shoot and get himself killed at this point.

If you kill the Brotherhood of Steel soldier behind the last door, the soldiers on the surface will be hostile. (this includes if you destroy one of the turrets)

Notable Loot
The following loot can be found in Taft Tunnel. Please see the specific page for additional info.


 * (possible) Tesla Power Armor
 * (possible) Tesla Helmet
 * Enclave power armor (also known as: Advanced Power Armor Mk II)
 * Enclave power helmet (see Advanced Power Armor Mk II for more details)
 * Laser Rifles and Plasma Rifles, and their corresponding pistols
 * Chinese Army: Special Ops Training Manual
 * Nuka-Cola Quantum
 * Eyebot Helmet
 * Nikola Tesla and You

Note: It is possible and if you're a very lucky person (has nothing to do with luck stats) to find 3 full sets of Tesla power armor on the enclave soldiers.

Bugs

 * There appears to be a bug where Dogmeat, Charon, Sargent RL-3 and probably other companions, will appear during the scene where Dr. Li demands medical aid for Garza. Dogmeat and any other follower you have will be located in the hallway, from whence the player came, next to the entrance of Taft Tunnel's second section.  The companions only appear in Taft Tunnel if the player had requested the companion/s to wait somewhere before undertaking the end of this quest. Dogmeat may return to Vault 101, other followers may be lost if not told to follow you.


 * There appears to be a bug in all consoles of the game that will not allow this quest to continue. When instructed to kill all of the Super Mutants from the Jefferson Memorial, even after killing all of them your father won't recognize it and thus the quest can't continue. Look very hard for any stragglers, probably at the end near the flood control. You may need to take out the turret also, but this is not confirmed. Make sure to clear the sub-basement.


 * There also appears to be another bug where Daniel disappears (or possibly gets killed) and Dr. Li and Garza will stay put and never move in a part of the Taft Tunnels, thus making the quest uncompletable. (If you decide to kill Garza at that time, you can drag Garza's body to any location and Dr. Li will follow Garza's corpse. Though this doesn't help due to the fact that you cannot drag Garza's body through the manhole at the end of the tunnel.)


 * There appears to be a bug where if you have already killed all enemies in Jefferson memorial the quest won't allow you to advance. Your father will keep asking you if it is safe and you cannot complete the quest. Make sure to clear the sub-basement.


 * There appears to be a bug in the Xbox 360 version, where if Dr. Li goes into the basement area of the Jefferson Memorial and you follow in after her, if she goes back into the main area, and if you try to follow her again, the game will freeze up as you load through. It virtually makes your quest impossible. (This happened with the Fallout 3 game data installed on the Xbox 360 hardware, it is untested when reading from the disc) (Tested 4 Jan 2008) Does not happen on disc read. (also tested 7 Jan 2008 with game not installed to disc and freeze still occurs)


 * When Li arrives at a door terminal and states she can hack it, if you hack it before her she will go to the terminal and just keep typing, and the rest of the team just sits there watching.


 * Near the end of the quest where you leave the tunnels to approach the Citadel, there is a bug that can cause the game to crash. This occurs when you fast travel to another part of the Wasteland before Dr. Li requests the gates of the Citadel be opened. When you return to the Citadel, Dr. Li and the other survivors will be walking around the perimeters of the Citadel aimlessly and will not approach the intercom. Without Dr. Li to request the gates be opened, entrance to the Citadel cannot be achieved, hence making it impossible to continue with the main story. This bug is reported on the XBOX 360 version.


 * It's possible that one or all of the survivors except Li will randomly turn hostile in the 360 version. They will not attack and still follow you, but their markers on the compass become red and Li becomes afraid of them and goes into "flee" mode until you kill them.


 * There is a bug on the PC version where Daniel Agincourt and another scientist will not enter the Rotunda, thus making it impossible to continue with the main quest.


 * There appears to be a bug in the Xbox 360 version where if one or all of the survivors become hostile, Dogmeat will come to your aid after leaving him safe in Megaton.


 * There appears to be a bug in the Xbox 360 version where if there is a dead super mutant in the Jefferson Memorial doorway, the entire team will enter the building except for James/Dad, who stand in front of the Project Purity entrance in the wasteland and tells the player they need to go to Project Purity. This bug stops the quest and game from being able to be completed. Beating him there and blowing the body out of the way appears to resolve the issue.


 * On the way to the memorial, Dad may tell you to check for super mutants. When you clear out the place and come back, he may be stuck in the air unable to talk to you. The quest can still be completed and this Dad may still be alive during the Take It Back! quest, but he will be unable to talk to you. (Xbox 360 Version)