Gallons Of Water

Heavy rains last month filled rivers, streams, wells and reservoirs to capacity statewide and sent record amounts of water flowing into Chesapeake Bay, federal scientists said yesterday. An estimated 123 billion gallons of water flowed into the bay each day last month, the second-highest amount since recordkeeping began in 1937, according to the U.S. Geological Survey in Baltimore. The only month with higher streamflow levels was June 1972, when Tropical Storm Agnes flooded the region.

A throng of plaintiffs packed a Towson courtroom yesterday, overflowing into a hallway, to hear the lawyer they had hired make the case that their neighborhood was ruined and their health endangered by the leak from a gas station of thousands of gallons of gasoline. "This is a leak that should not have happened," Stephen L. Snyder, whose firm is representing 300 residents of Jacksonville, said in Baltimore County Circuit Court during opening statements in a trial in which the plaintiffs are collectively seeking $1 billion from Exxon Mobil Corp.

The Maryland Department of the Environment will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. Aug. 20 in the Manchester Fire Company activities hall regarding an application by the town of Manchester to supplement the town's municipal water supply.MDE officials said the town has applied to use a daily average of 69,700 gallons of water with a maximum daily average of 116,400 gallons of water during the month of maximum use. The water will be drawn from a well to provide a potable supply for 303 residential homes to be built on the 196-acre Manchester Farms estate on the southeast side of Bert Fowler Road, MDE officials said.

If you're looking to be more green this summer, or if at least you'd like your garden to be, a rain barrel could be the solution. The old-time practice of collecting rainwater is becoming increasingly popular in urban, environmentally conscious communities. Rain barrels are not only good for the environment - conserving water and reducing run off - they make watering your plants a little easier on the pocketbook, as well.

As the population in Crofton and Odenton mushrooms, Anne Arundel County is planning to build a $10 million expansion to the Crofton Meadows Water Treatment Plant to double the amount of drinking water available in that area.Engineers completed last week the design of the expansion, which will treat 5 million gallons of water a day, said Charles Faircloth, a public works project manager. Bids for the plant will be taken through March 21, and construction is to begin this summer.The new plant will be built on 10 acres of land next to the existing plant in the 1500 block of Riedel Road.

Several South Carroll residents attended a meeting with county Comptroller Eugene S. Curfman last night to protest a proposed 6 percent increase in their quarterly water and sewer bills. Curfman has proposed raising water and sewer rates in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. It would be the second rate increase in two years. The commissioners are expected to act on Curfman's proposal next week, when they adopt a spending plan for the coming budget year. "We conserve water because we have to ... and still we have to pay more," said Dee Andrews of Eldersburg, who has lived in the community since 1977 and, like her neighbors, has suffered water shortages during three of the past four summers.

Thousands of residents of South Carroll's Freedom area, the county's most populous region, might soon have to pay more for public water and sewer service. It would be the second rate increase in two years. The county commissioners are weighing a proposal that would raise water and sewer rates for the average consumer by about 6 percent in fiscal 2002, which will begin July 1. County Comptroller Eugene C. Curfman will discuss the proposed changes at a public meeting tomorrow at Liberty High School in Eldersburg.

Let's all do our part to conserve water As you well know by now, Maryland is in a severe drought, and we must do all we can to conserve this precious resource. The weathermen can't "make" it rain; but we as a state can help to prevent any more unnecessary water loss. We can do that by conserving our valuable water. I am a sixth-grader at Sykesville Middle School in Carroll County. My inspiration for writing this has come from a movie we watched in my science teacher, Mrs. Ray's, class and from going to Outdoor School (Camp Hoshawha)

Concerned about drought conditions and looming water shortages, the Carroll commissioners urged water conservation yesterday, but stopped short of any kind of a ban on use, including filling swimming pools. "Conservation is important this summer," said Commissioner Julia Walsh Gouge during a meeting on water issues. "Start now." Douglas E. Myers, county director of public works, had suggested an immediate ban on filling swimming pools, a process that consumes thousands of gallons of water every spring.

As much as a quarter of the water treated at the Manchester sewage treatment plant may be leaking into the system from ground water and runoff, causing the facility to treat thousands of gallons of water a day unnecessarily.The problem, called inflow and infiltration, or I & I, is expensive because the town must pay for chemicals and electricity used to treat that extra water."We're treating water that we shouldn't be treating," said Steven Miller, Manchester's water and waste water superintendent.

The prolonged dry spell and lower stream levels have forced suppliers of water to Bel Air and Edgewood Arsenal to switch from their systems to the county's in the past few weeks, while the supplier for Aberdeen Proving Ground plans to make the change as soon as tomorrow. More customers means the county must provide an additional 4.5 million gallons of water a day from its treatment plants. Customers will probably not notice any difference in taste or pressure, nor will they see spikes on their water bills, officials said.

The owner of a downtown Mount Airy building consumed in an blaze early Sunday announced plans last night to establish a temporary office park for the six destroyed Main Street businesses and several others that were damaged. Rob Scranton, who had renovated the 1930s-era Bohn Building, said trailers could be installed in the downtown parking lot as soon as next week by the same company that offered similar support to the town of La Plata after a tornado in 2002. "There's a lot of work to do in the coming days, months and into the next year," Scranton said at an emergency meeting convened at Mount Airy Town Hall.

As reported Aug. 4, 1957, in The Sun: Thirsty Ellicott City looked in vain yesterday for a long cool glass of water. A muddy trickle dripped from open faucets as the town's critical shortage entered its second day. At 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon, a 7,200-gallon tank truck began a seemingly endless shuttle from the Baltimore county water main on Rolling Road to replenish the town's 250,000-gallon storage tank. Two artesian wells pumped all last night but were unable to fill the gap caused by nearly dry Sucker Branch.

Your tomato publication says to give producing plants 1 to 2 gallons of water twice a week during dry spells. I water with a hose, so how can I know how much water I'm giving them? Fill a bucket to 2 gallons with your hose at its regular setting. As you fill it, count aloud until the bucket is full. Whatever number your reach, count to that number when watering a plant and you'll know that you've given it 2 gallons of water. Counting to half the number yields 1 gallon. Huge brown and yellow hornets are buzzing around our door at night.

The Carroll County commissioners signed a $1.25 million contract yesterday to purchase a New Windsor-area quarry that could yield about 300,000 gallons of water a day as a potential backup source for the water-depleted city of Westminster. It will be the first water source purchased for Westminster since the city signed a consent order with the Maryland Department of the Environment in April, ending a six-month building moratorium because of the water deficit. That agreement mentions the quarry as a potential emergency source during times of drought.

After operating under a six-month building moratorium because of a water shortage, the Westminster City Council is scheduled to vote tomorrow night on a plan that would allocate water the state has granted the city to priority residential and commercial development projects. An additional 60,000 gallons of water per day became available last week when Westminster officials signed a consent order with the Maryland Department of the Environment, laying out steps to expand the city's water supply.

Calling the dwindling supply of water here threatening, the Town Council last night unanimously imposed a ban on outdoor water use.The measure, which carries fines of up to $50 for watering lawns, washing cars, filling swimming pools or any other use of water outdoors, is the third such mandatory restriction of water consumption in the county."

AUSTIN, Texas - The Mexican government missed a key deadline yesterday for releasing tens of millions of gallons of water it owes the United States along the Rio Grande Valley - leaving Texas farmers uncertain as to the future of their crops. Mexico was unable to deliver the water because of lower-than-expected rainfall this year and must now look to other sources - including water stored near three Mexican dams - before its final Sept. 30 release deadline. "If we don't get any water this fall, we're going to be completely out, I think, come the first of the year," said Jimmy Weingardner, 60, a Hidalgo County farmer who grows cotton and oranges and has reduced watering this summer.

Anne Arundel County officials yesterday lifted a round-the-clock ban on outdoor water usage for an estimated 200,000 residents, although mandatory restrictions remain in effect for communities from Laurel to Linthicum. The ban on outdoor use of public water went into effect Monday for 13 ZIP codes across the county's northern tier after a 42-inch water main broke last weekend in Glen Burnie, spewing at least 3 million gallons. That pipe was replaced Tuesday, and water pressure rose enough to prompt county officials to relax the restrictions.

More water is on its way to South Carroll, but the new water sources are designed to meet current demand, not spur development in Carroll County's most populous and fastest-growing area, officials said. The county will move forward with a $14 million expansion to its water treatment plant in Eldersburg and drill a series of wells to augment the water supply, although officials said that developers should not rush to add more shops and homes to the public water system. "They will have to get in line," said Douglas E. Myers, director of public works.