Gallons Of Water

The Manchester ad-hoc committee on water and sewers decided last night to ask the Town Council to abolish the 5,000-gallon minimum water charge.However, the committee cannot make a recommendation on final water and sewer rates until the council decides whether to ++ give raises to water and wastewater employees.Town Manager Terry Short said the new structure should allow the town to set water rates for five years at a time.Committee member Joe Lovetro said, "What we're really trying to do is balance it out for the long term, rather than the short term."

The Westminster Common Council voted last night to pursue a $2.5 million state loan that would help the city tap an emergency water supply through a permanent underground pipeline. The city would use the money to build a 5.5-mile emergency water main connection that would connect a quarry outside Westminster to a State Highway Administration swale on Wyntridst Drive off Route 97. More than a million gallons of water would be available during emergencies. The water at Medford Quarry is free through an agreement between the city and LaFarge Corp.

For $15, Crofton will soon have a brimming, placid lake to greet its visitors.The county, in a generous mood, is going to give the community a deal on 100,000 gallons of water so officials there can figure out how to make Lake Louise lake-like.Crofton officials want to see if it is worth the time and effort to keep the lake -- in reality, a large storm water drainage pond -- full."It's the first time we've ever had a request like this," said Jody Vollmar, a spokeswoman for the county Department of Utilities.

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.

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.

Constellation Energy's two-reactor plant at Calvert Cliffs is set on a cliff overlooking the Chesapeake Bay, taking up about a fifth of a 2,100-acre former tobacco plantation that is now mostly a wildlife habitat for eagles, ospreys and deer. Its Unit 1 has been producing power since 1975, Unit 2 since 1977. Some 1,000 workers keep the plant humming. The plant's two nuclear reactors are housed in a solid concrete containment building in concrete structures that are designed to contain any heat or pressure or radioactive materials "in the unlikely event of a nuclear event," said Barbara Wagner, a spokeswoman for the plant.

Like worried watermen and environmentalists along the tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay, Crofton residents are helplessly standing by as the heat wave wipes out the life in their community pond along Route 3.For the second time in as many years, Lake Louise has dried up with the drought. Several dozen fish and water birds that had made the 4-acre lake in front of the Crofton community gates their home have died in recent days.The intense heat has contributed to an algae population boom, and when that plant dies it absorbs oxygen in the lake.

Thousands of residents of the Freedom Area, Carroll's most populous region, could see their water and sewer bills swell by as much as 10 percent this summer. The county commissioners are weighing a proposal that would change the method used to calculate the rates for public water and sewer service. The method, which officials called complex, was adopted in 1972. Under the method proposed by O'Brien & Gere Engineers Inc., a Landover consulting firm, rates for moderate and high volume users -- those who use more than 10,000 gallons of water per quarter -- would jump by as much as 10 percent.

Some fun facts to impress your friends around the water cooler.* There is no water on the moon, which is why it has so many craters. When megatons of space matter were flying around megacenturies ago, the Earth had its own share of pockmarks, which later were mostly smoothed out by oceans, rivers and streams. Mars and Venus also have no seas or rainfall, making it unlikely there is any form of life on either planet.* The Earth's available fresh water represents about one-half percent of its supply.

Residents of the Freedom Area, Carroll's most populous region, might soon have to pay more for public water and sewer service.According to county Comptroller Eugene C. Curfman, the plan he proposed yesterday would raise the area's water and sewer rates about 5 percent in fiscal year 2000, which begins July 1. The issue will be considered as part of the proposed county budget during a public hearing May 6.Freedom, which includes all of South Carroll and...