Tap Water

CARROLL County needs expanded water supplies. Fortunately, it has several options. Prominent among them is Piney Run Lake, for which the state gave a water withdrawal permit 35 years ago. Now the state says that using the reservoir to meet rising demands of South Carroll is inconsistent with the county water and sewer plan. Instead, it insists that Carroll accede to land-use conditions set by Baltimore City and take more water from the city's Liberty Reservoir. The state's rebuff to Carroll is an escalation of the governor's clash with the county on its growth decisions, which conflict with his anti-sprawl Smart Growth policy.

Carroll County commissioners, who spent about $75,000 on testing, engineering and designing a series of wells at Springfield Hospital Center, have decided not to tap into wells there to augment the water supply in South Carroll, but will instead consider using the Moxley property well nearby. A majority of the commissioners also reiterated their determination to ease water shortages by building a $14 million treatment plant on Piney Run Reservoir. The commissioners voted 2-to-1 yesterday against building four wells at the Sykesville hospital but did not shut the door completely on the Moxley property at Route 32 and Raincliffe Road.

WASHINGTON -- Got milk? You'd better. Since the Bush administration has announced it will suspend a safe arsenic standard, you may want to think twice before drinking water. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, tens of millions of Americans drink tap water containing arsenic at levels that pose significant health risks. Yet the Bush administration wants to delay action to address the problem. After decades of debate, EPA in January finally lowered the allowable level of arsenic in tap water to 10 parts per billion (ppb)

FALLON, Nev. - This is how tough the folks are who live here: They make jokes about the arsenic they drink. Fallon, population 8,300, calls itself "the Oasis of the Desert." But it's also the arsenic capital of America. A study of EPA data from 25 states by the Natural Resources Defense Council in 2000 found that Fallon's water system delivered more arsenic to its customers than any other large system, defined as one serving at least 3,300 people. And so last month, when Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman rescinded a Clinton administration decision to reduce the allowable levels of arsenic in U.S. tap water by 80 percent, the folks here didn't blink an eye. Without complaint, generations of Fallon residents have been drinking water with arsenic levels twice as high as the old limit, and they don't want to pay for a $10 million treatment plant.

CUMBERLAND - Over the past six years, Ella Snyder has used roughly 4,300 gallons of bottled mineral water. She has a working 105-foot well in her front lawn, but ever since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told her it was contaminated with hazardous waste, she's opted for the bottles. But Snyder and 18 neighboring households on a hillside east of Cumberland have returned to the world of safe tap water. This Allegany County community of mostly small houses and mobile homes was finally hooked up to the city water system, and for Snyder and her neighbors, it meant a transition few can appreciate.

The water of Mount Airy tastes good. That is the considered opinion of Mount Airy Mayor Gerald R. Johnson. The tap water tastes so good, he is carrying 2 gallons of the town's finest to Berkeley Springs, W.Va., to compete tomorrow against municipalities from across the country in the 10th annual International Water Tasting & Competition. "I'll get together with the water experts and we'll give [them] our best," said Johnson, who doesn't claim to know much about hydrology, other than to let the tap run for a while before filling two glass jugs for the official entry.

"Welcome aboard Flight 555. This is your captain speaking. We would especially like to welcome our frequent flier members, who will earn 34 million miles during our one-stop service to Mars, with lunar refueling and connecting flights to our orbiting hotel partners. Flying time should be about nine months if meteor showers don't interfere, and we anticipate an on-time arrival. So sit back and relax. In a few minutes we will begin meal service to our first-class passengers, wherever you've chosen to drift.

The county's first published tap water analysis of the Freedom District system has pronounced the supply that serves Carroll's most populated area safe and healthful."

The county's first published tap water analysis of the Freedom District system has pronounced the supply that serves Carroll's most populated area safe and healthy."