Restrictions

Marylanders flooded government switchboards with questions yesterday, while some residents poured bathwater on plants and carwash owners steamed as statewide water-use restrictions took effect.A telephone hot line set up by the state fielded 250 to 500 calls an hour yesterday, as homeowners asked whether they had to let their fish or flowers die (Answer: No) and business owners questioned how the curbs on outdoor water use applied to carwashes and golf courses and water parks.Police departments geared up to begin handing out warnings and citations to violators, even as complaints about water wasters started trickling in.In Baltimore, meanwhile, city officials announced they would start tapping the Susquehanna River early next week to supplement the shrinking reservoirs that serve 1.8 million people in the city and suburbs.

With streams running higher than usual, Gov. Parris N. Glendening is expected to ease today the mandatory water-use restrictions he imposed last month to deal with the state's persistent drought.The governor's office said last night that last week's storms cut the state's rainfall deficit by nearly 2 inches and that Marylanders' conservation efforts cut water consumption by 16 percent.Glendening said he was "optimistic that we will be able to provide some relief" from the curbs after his Drought Emergency Coordinating Committee makes its recommendations today.

Moving to head off Maryland's worsening water crisis, Gov. Parris N. Glendening ordered mandatory water-use restrictions yesterday for the first time in state history, banning lawn sprinklers and home car-washing and asking businesses to cut water consumption by 10 percent."

Time to get serious about water-use limits and region's droughtThe Sun's article "Businesses ask state to ease water rules" (Aug. 17) indicated that sod farmers, swimming pool companies and golf courses want the same exceptions to water-use restrictions the governor gave to car wash businesses.They properly point out that they have employees whose jobs could be lost, just as the car washes do.I won't be surprised if the governor gives them the exceptions they want -- as they have the potential to hire lobbyists and make big political contributions.

Development battles aren't likely to end in rural north Baltimore County, though preservationists won protections on 9,000 acres this week.Community leaders and groups such as the Sierra Club want more of the remaining 66,000 acres of rural watershed-protection land restricted to keep homebuilders out. But farmers say such restrictions rob them of property rights.The problem is that watershed land allows one house per 5 acres, and runs throughout rural areas where zoning allows only one house per 50 acres.

Maryland's crabbing restrictions this fall appear to be working, though perhaps a little too well.The catch of female crabs -- which the emergency limits are intended to protect -- has returned to normal after almost three years of above-average landings, Department of Natural Resources officials told a legislative committee in Annapolis yesterday.But some watermen and seafood dealers say the restrictions imposed last month on hours and days when crabs may be caught have reduced the overall catch more than state officials intended.

The water-use limits imposed June 25 in Manchester have been eased, Mayor Tim Warehime announced yesterday. Effective today, only residential watering of lawns will be restricted and subject to fines.He said he was able to ease the restrictions because the town's springs and wells are now producing enough water to serve the area's needs. The supply is expected to last through this year and into the next.Mr. Warehime also said he intends to review the results of a recent water study by Tatman and Lee Associates Inc., which recommends the development of greater water production and storage capacity.

Plans to ban commercial crabbing on Sundays and at night next year in Maryland have been shelved, at least for now, in the face of heated protests from watermen.New crabbing restrictions, intended to protect the Chesapeake Bay's seafood staple from overfishing, were withdrawn last week by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources after watermen in the Baltimore area and on the upper Eastern Shore complained that the rules were unfair to them or unnecessary, or both.William P. Jensen, state fisheries director, said there were "tremendous turnouts" at hearings in late September in Annapolis and Easton, where watermen raised "reasonable" objections to the proposed rules.

Wendy McClelland is going to watch some football today."I'm going to be a fan now, now that I know some of the players," the 35-year-old Minneapolis mother of four, who works part-time in a jewelry store, said last week.McClelland is one of the eight women on the jury who ruled the NFL's Plan B free agency system violates the antitrust laws."I believe they should have more freedom," she said. "I tried to compare it to another job. I know there have to be some restrictions, but they're still human beings."

LOS ANGELES -- A new age is dawning in the American West. Under inexorable urban, political and environmental pressures, water -- the lifeblood of this arid region -- has slowly begun to flow away from farms and ranches and toward the big cities.Congress pushed along the trend on Thursday by passing the Omnibus Water Act, a turning point in federal water policy.The act would encourage farmers to sell their water to the cities and would reserve large amounts of water to repair environmental damage in California.

For the first time in more than a decade, Congress has a real chance to lift the crippling restrictions on the federally financed Legal Services Corporation (LSC) that have hampered the agency's efforts to assist poor people seeking redress through the courts. At a time when many people are struggling against the threat of foreclosure, eviction or loss of health and unemployment benefits as a result of the economic downturn, the LSC's services are needed more than ever. Congress should seize this opportunity to make them available as widely as possible.

Because of water supply problems stemming from a large water pipe being repaired in Baltimore County, about 66,000 Howard County residents, businesses and industrial plants must not use sprinklers or wash their vehicles at home after 5 p.m. or on weekends or holidays. County Executive James N. Robey said that while some restrictions already were in place, water levels dropped too low over the Memorial Day weekend. The Baltimore County pipe, which is undergoing summer-long repairs, delivers up to half of Howard's public water.

Howard County residents and business owners served by the public water system will be restricted to an odd/even use of outdoor water starting tomorrow and continuing through Sept. 1. The repair of a major water main in Baltimore County is necessitating the action, according to James M. Irvin, Howard County's public works director. The 54-inch water main in southwestern Baltimore County delivers a significant amount of drinking water to Howard County and to part of Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties.

My husband works full time for a large retailer. It's maddening how irregular his hours are. Even though he might work from 3 p.m. to midnight one day, he sometimes has to return the following day as early as 8 a.m. This doesn't seem right to me. The company also does not want to pay him any overtime, even if he's unable to hand off customers when his shift is up. Instead, to keep him from logging more than 40 hours in a week, his manager will tell him...

IT MAY TAKE years to absorb all the lessons for storm preparation that Isabel recently left behind, but one message is already clear: Those who don't treat the shoreline with respect will likely regret it. Houses built too close to the water were smashed to bits; waterfront property cleared of trees and wetlands was washed away. Litter and other debris dumped along bay and river banks - or directly into the water - were spit back into flooded basements and living rooms. The often tentative, hesitant approach toward land-use restrictions to protect the Chesapeake Bay employed by politicians, bureaucrats and courts was overruled by surging seas.

WASHINGTON - U.S. officials say that when they begin military tribunals for prisoners charged with terrorism, they want the trials to be seen as fair, by both the nation and the world. But as the Pentagon prepares for the first such proceedings in more than 50 years, it is encountering a potent criticism: Many lawyers and professional groups say the conditions for civilian defense lawyers are so restrictive that they might not agree to participate in the process. The issue of whether lawyers should agree to defend prisoners in proceedings at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been raised by Lawrence S. Goldman, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, which has among its 11,000 members many of the nation's prominent defense lawyers.

Anne Arundel County has agreed to ease water restrictions on north county residents, Councilman Ronald C. Dillon Jr. announced yesterday. Residents within three ZIP codes - 21122, 21060 and 21226 - will be allowed nonrestrictive water use on Saturdays and Sundays from midnight to 11 a.m. The eased restrictions take effect May 17, Dillon said. Water use has been restricted since May 1. The restrictions will remain in place while repairs are completed on a Baltimore waterline that broke last year.

With a wet winter replenishing Westminster's water supply, the city's Common Council voted last night to repeal some restrictions against most outdoor watering. After the recent rains and snowfalls, the city's main water source, the Raw Reservoir, is 98 percent full - nearly four times the level it was in September. "I think Mother Nature's cooperated enough to loosen restrictions," said Damian L. Halstad, Common Council president. In August, a dry summer and plummeting water levels prompted the council to enact restrictions that went beyond the state's prohibitions on water use. Public water customers in Westminster - including McDaniel College - were barred from watering athletic fields, golf courses, commercial nurseries and newly seeded and sodded tracts.

A soggy autumn that brought nearly 5 inches of surplus rain and snow has prompted Gov. Parris N. Glendening to cancel drought emergency restrictions imposed in August on the Eastern Shore, and to ease water limits in Central Maryland. Central Maryland is now the only section of the state still under mandatory water-use curbs. Glendening scaled back the drought emergency yesterday in Central Maryland, from the Level 2 restrictions imposed in August, to the less restrictive Level 1 rules imposed in April.

Carroll's commissioners extended restrictions on outdoor water use to two small systems yesterday, meaning that all public water customers in the county are covered by the prohibitions. The restrictions - which allow outdoor water use on alternate days for residents, depending upon their street addresses - were extended yesterday to customers in the Pleasant Valley area outside Westminster and Bark Hill, near Union Bridge. Those systems rely on wells whose levels have been dropping, said Doug Myers, county director of public works.