Gallons Of Water

The wettest October in seven years dropped 6 inches of much-needed rain on parts of Central Maryland, filling streams and boosting the drinking water stored in Baltimore's reservoirs by 10 percent. The reservoir system remains more than half-empty as November begins, however. The drought emergency is not over, and city officials say they have no plans to ease the mandatory water restrictions imposed Aug. 10. "We're still below where we were in the first week of September," said city public works spokesman Kurt Kocher, referring to reservoir levels.

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.

It's beginning to seem like a waterless world. Even if it rains for 40 days and 40 nights, it feels as if we'll still be in a drought. Rainfall in the area is already more than 10 inches below normal for this year -- after a dry 2001--- and Baltimore's reservoirs have dropped to below 45 percent of their capacity. This is a problem on its way to becoming a disaster when you consider that the average American uses between 80 and 100 gallons of water a day, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

GROWTH is a hidden co-conspirator in Maryland's severe drought, teaming with the lack of rainfall to squeeze water reserves. While scientists and state officials are less than conclusive in their judgments of how much supply trouble is created by the steady increase of homes, roads and parking lots across the landscape, most agree that development wastes significant quantities of water. That's not just because it provides more thirsty customers, but also because of what it does to the water that falls from the sky. Instead of seeping into the ground and replenishing the underground aquifers that feed wells and supplement reservoirs, rain often rushes down gutters and across pavement into fast-flowing streams that can drain it away from where it's needed.

If the heavens don't open to provide significant rain this week, Westminster will address its water shortage with human ingenuity: employing a convoy of trucks to ferry millions of gallons of water from an abandoned quarry to the city's water treatment plant. "It's alarming to me that we've gone from being flush with water to having so little," said Damian L. Halstad, Westminster Common Council president. "One bad summer and we're up the creek." The council voted Monday night to approve the trucking plan after discussing options for conserving and replenishing the city's water supply, which has been steadily dropping since April.

Reducing water consumption and increasing the city's supply will be the focus of the Westminster Common Council meeting tonight. "We're really reaching a crisis level," said Council President Damian L. Halstad. "It's impossible at this point to be too alarmed. We need to send a message that it's getting bad." The main source of the city's water supply, Raw Reservoir, has dropped to about 25 percent. About this time last year, it was nearly 60 percent full, according to city officials.

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)

One of Aberdeen's drinking water wells was shut down yesterday after perchlorate, a hazardous industrial chemical, was found in a sample taken from the well, said city and Aberdeen Proving Ground officials. The discovery was unwelcome news for the proving ground, which has been working aggressively to pinpoint the source of the contamination, discovered about a month ago in ground-water samples taken about 300 feet from one of the city's 11 wells along the post boundary. "We no longer have breathing room," said George Mercer, proving ground spokesman.

NEWBURGH, N.Y. - All along the East Coast, persistent drought has shriveled streams like never before. But tucked in the woods 70 miles north of New York City, a circular pool of fresh, clear water spills into a sparkling brook that runs downhill to the Hudson River. No matter how dry the weather, gauges measure a flow of between 4 million and 6 million gallons a day. No one is thrilled, however. The sinkhole and half a dozen other springs and wet spots nearby are fed by leaks 600 feet underground in one of the most important water tunnels in the world, the 85-mile Delaware Aqueduct.

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, whether you are on a public system or a well." 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.