Tap Water

Marylanders are overflowing with questions in the wake of the mandatory statewide water restrictions imposed this week. Here are some of them, and the answers from state, federal and private experts.The governor said we can water our "gardens" but that his azaleas will go thirsty. Can we water our flowers and shrubs or not?The only outright watering ban is on lawns. We can water flowers, shrubs or vegetables, in gardens or pots, so long as we do it from cans, buckets or hand-held hoses. No sprinklers, no soaker hoses, no drips.

GERMANTOWN -- Severe drought conditions might force water management officials in the Washington suburbs to tap a never-before-used supply: a 450-acre man-made lake in northwest Montgomery County. But drawing down Little Seneca Lake, the centerpiece of Black Hill Regional Park, could kill thousands of fish, harm wildlife and create stinking mud flats near hundreds of waterfront homes, the County Council was told yesterday. Little Seneca was built 20 years ago as a last-resort reservoir for the water system that serves Maryland's two most populous counties -- Montgomery and Prince George's -- and the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia.

Walkersville-area residents got their first untroubled sip from the tap yesterday, more than two weeks after a sewage spill contaminated the Frederick County town's water supply.Officials announced that the 7,500 residents on the municipal water system no longer need to boil water before drinking. An emergency hookup to the city of Frederick's water supply has supplanted the town's tainted wells.A temporary pipeline connecting Walkerville's water system to Frederick's Monocacy water treatment plant was finished June 27. Town officials have been busy since then flushing out their lines to remove bacteria.

As many as 20 Walkersville households have reported symptoms that might be related to sewage-contaminated tap water, although no positive link to a recent sewer-line break has been established, Frederick County health officials said yesterday.Ellen B. Ristorcelli, director of nursing for the county Health Department, said her staff is collecting stool samples to test at a state laboratory for the presence of one of two microscopic parasites -- giardia or cryptosporidium.Contamination concerns stem from the June 18 break that spilled 900,000 gallons of raw sewage into the ground and contaminated the source of drinking water for more than 7,000 people in the Walkersville area.

WALKERSVILLE -- All day yesterday the phones in Town Hall here rang off the hook as residents called, fearful about the quality of their water after a construction accident Friday spilled 900,000 gallons of raw sewage.Gloria Rollins, Town Hall administrator in this hamlet about five miles northeast of Frederick, said she lost count, but there "must have been hundreds of them."She waved a notepad nearly full, saying, "And those are only the ones since we started logging them in about 10: 15. Most of the calls came before that."

Gambling is OK if it (A) benefits charities; (B) funds schools; (C) improves horses; (D) reflects Native American rights; (E) keeps mad-money in-state or (F) lightens taxes. What can never justify it is fun.The state bought Deep Creek Lake and will move it to Prince George's County.Cheer up. Studies show that bottled water is, on average, as safe as tap water.Beat Tampa Bay!Pub Date: 4/05/99

Next to the Evian, the Poland Springs and the Deer Park you could someday see a bottle of Baltimore water.Baltimore City Council members want to test the notion that the city's tap water can compete with the name-brand springs in the stores.Council members introduced a resolution last night calling on the city's public works director to report on the feasibility of bottling Baltimore's water for sale.Said council President Lawrence A. Bell III: "Baltimore City water is considered to be some of the best water in the country."

WASHINGTON -- Beginning next year, all Americans would be told what is in their tap water and how safe it is to drink, under a program proposed yesterday by the Environmental Protection Agency.Moving to implement a key element of the 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clinton administration proposed regulations that would require water companies to tell consumers at least once a year where their water comes from, the chemicals and bacteria that are in it and the potential health hazards of the contaminants.

PHILADELPHIA -- A study of tap water in Philadelphia from 1989 to 1993 has linked small increases in cloudiness, or turbidity, to gastrointestinal infections that cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea in children.Heightened turbidity can indicate microbial contamination, and even though turbidity levels in Philadelphia never exceeded federal limits during the study, the researchers said their findings suggested that tap water might be the source of millions of cases of unexplained illness all over the nation that people now attribute to food poisoning or unknown causes.

Health inspectors will begin testing private drinking-water wells in Anne Arundel County this month hoping to find out why the county has one of the highest cancer death rates in the state.County, state and federal officials will spend about four months checking tap water at about 50 homes in the county for pesticides, industrial chemicals and other compounds believed to cause cancer."So far, they haven't found anything out of the ordinary with our water supply," said Richard Dixon, regional manager for water operations at the county's Department of Public Works.