Water Levels

Residents of Finksburg, a gateway community to Carroll County that lies entirely within the Liberty Reservoir watershed, will focus on water protection issues tonight during a panel discussion with several experts in the field. An environmental administrator from Baltimore County, a former Carroll County employee and a representative from the Baltimore Metropolitan Council will address Finksburg Planning Area Council at 7 p.m. The group will discuss regional concerns about Carroll's refusal to endorse the longstanding Watershed Protection Agreement with the city and the metropolitan counties, and a scrubbed county water resources ordinance.

April showers bring all sorts of cliches, but no relief from the drought in Maryland. After several days of steady rain and drizzle, the state was running just about even with last year's precipitation level, a thimbleful more than 13 inches through yesterday. "Well and ground water levels are still below normal, they're not even close," said Dewey Walston, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va. "There's a high likelihood we're going to fall back into another drought."

A water quality advisory issued Sunday for several Baltimore neighborhoods was lifted yesterday afternoon, but not before residents flocked to stores and snatched up gallons of bottled water. Grocery stores in Hampden, Roland Park and Charles Village reported the rush on water was equivalent to Y2K preparations in the days leading to New Year's Eve. "The water shelf has been blown out -- empty," said Jim Staines, manager of the Super Fresh store in the 1000 block of 41st St. Union Memorial Hospital resorted to its unused Y2K water supply when it learned of the water advisory, said hospital spokeswoman Amy Strong.

Low ground water levels delay sewage system tests Ground water levels in Carroll County have caused the Health Department to delay testing of some proposed lots for sewage disposal systems. Maryland sewage disposal and subdivision regulations require certain soil percolation and other tests to be conducted when the highest water table can be expected in the sewage disposal area. Levels usually are at their highest between Feb. 1 and April 30. The Health Department will delay testing in wet weather soils until shallow water table conditions are more normal.

Carroll Lutheran Village selects 2 new trustees The Carroll Lutheran Village board of trustees recently had elections and welcomed two new members. Re-elected to a second three-year term were: R. Wayne Barnes, president of Barnes-Bollinger Insurance; and Thomas J. Zirpoli, president and chief executive officer of Target Community & Educational Services and a Western Maryland College professor. Newly elected to the board were: Ann H. Deming, former bookkeeper and village resident; Marion Suski, multimedia developer for Bell Atlantic and Friends of the Village vice president; and Arthur Steven Wisner, treasurer/ director of financial services at WMC. Two ex officio board members are the Rev. Eugene Alexander, pastor of Holy Spirit Lutheran Church and dean of the Westminster Conference of the Delaware/Maryland Synod, and William Richards, president of the Resident Association Council of the Village.

Fierce, gusting winds from the northwest blew the water right out of Baltimore and Annapolis harbors yesterday, leaving water levels so low a fireboat responding to a Clinton Street dock blaze last night couldn't get close enough to hose it down. Pleasure boats at some marinas were grounded or tipped over in water levels estimated at 2 to 4 feet below normal while temperatures dipped to 18 degrees in the Baltimore metropolitan area, freezing waterlines needed to fight the fire on the Canton waterfront.

In Baltimore City Planning Commission OKs proposal to convert apartments The Planning Commission approved yesterday a proposed $17 million conversion of the Northway apartments at 3700 N. Charles St. into upscale housing for senior citizens despite protests from a half-dozen of the nearly 200 residents who would be displaced by the project. Morningside Developments Inc.'s proposal requires that all residents of the 85-unit building vacate their units. At the request of planning commissioners, Morningside representatives promised to give residents 90 days' notice.

A hydrogeologist delivered news yesterday that only schoolchildren would want to hear: Carroll will need several snowy days this winter to get its water supply back to normal."