Water Pressure

Two developers hoping to build single-family homes in the New Windsor area are in disagreement about how water should be supplied to their respective sites and who should pay for it.Mike Sponseller, who is digging a well for his Atlee Ridge development, said he does not want to pay for use of the water tank the New Windsor Partnership must build for its Blue Ridge Manor homes, because his development does not need it."I don't want to pay for a water tank for half of their lots," Mr. Sponseller told the New Windsor Town Council Wednesday night.

For months, fire hydrants in Brooklyn Park haven't pumped enough water to put out an average house fire. Now, Anne Arundel County fire officials say they have come up with at least a short-term solution.When a fire is reported in Brooklyn Park, the Fire Department will dispatch an engine from the Ferndale station equipped with a 5-inch-diameter hose to the nearest hydrant on Ritchie Highway where the water pressure is better. The driver will be prepared to run the hose -- larger than other engine hoses -- to the fire to provide additional water capacity.

A water main break forced the closing yesterday of the headquarters of the state's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, state officials said. Workers discovered the 10-inch cracked main about 7 a.m. and sent home all nonessential employees about 9:15 a.m. Almost 2,000 state employees work in the Herbert R. O'Conor Building at 201 W. Preston St., said Dave Humphrey, a spokesman for the Department of General Services. By late yesterday afternoon, workers had made two attempts to fix the 30-year-old water main with stainless steel clamp couplings.

Water should be restored Sunday to the last of 115 homes left without service by a 12 inch water main break that caused Dunfield Road in Fullerton to collapse and temporarily lowered water pressure at the Oak Crest Village retirement complex. Dunfield Road from Stillmeadow to Bel Air roads near Tapu Court is closed while workers address the damage, said Kurt Kocher, spokesman of Baltimore's Department of Public Works. The water flowed into a nearby wetlands area, so no homes were damaged, he said.

A couple posing as city water department employees entered a Northeast Baltimore home yesterday and stole at least $2,000, a victim said.Edward M. Hammel, of the 3200 block of Kenyon Ave., said he recognized the man as the same one who asked to check the "inside" water meter at his home about two months ago. "I told him to leave then because the meter is outside and he didn't have ID," Hammel said.About 1 p.m. yesterday, the man returned and displayed a laminated ID card with his photo and the words "water department" and asked again to check the meter, Hammel said.

No doubt about it, indoor plumbing is the greatest convenience in shelter since the discovery of the door. But it's also the source of a huge number of homeowner headaches. We've gotten a series of questions recently about water problems such as burbling pipes and dripping walls. A reader in Severna Park offers another water puzzle."Our problem is the moaning noise [not hammer noise] we hear when we turn on the water. It's difficult to determine where the noise originates since the sound travels along the water routes and finally to the water heater . . . We've had the county water utility people examine it and they felt the cause might be due to high water pressure, and after some cajoling they installed a water-pressure reduction valve in the water main.

A water main break in Hunt Valley that created detours today and caused about 600 customers to lose water service may be fixed by sometime tonight, a city public works official said.James L. Kapplin, a spokesman for the Baltimore Department of Public Works, said all 328 units at the Broadmead Retirement Community north of the last night's break will be without water until repairs are made. The outage also affects nearly 300 other residential and commercial customers along York Road near the break, he said.

Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens has ordered an outdoor-watering ban through at least Thursday for the northern third of the county, pointing to an extreme loss of water pressure that she called "alarming." The around-the-clock outdoor ban affects an estimated 200,000 residents on the public water system in the county's most populated section, from Laurel and Brooklyn Park to Glen Burnie and Pasadena. This marks the second time Owens has instituted an outdoor prohibition on water use this year to combat shortages.

Yesterday marked the kickoff for Baltimore's "Save Our Water Fire Protection Campaign," an effort by the city to minimize a common summer problem: the unauthorized opening of fire hydrants.The campaign was organized by the city's fire and public works departments. Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, Fire Chief Herman Williams Jr., and Public Works Director George G. Balog attended a kickoff demonstration yesterday outside a city building in the 1000 block of W. Saratoga St.A fire hydrant produces a stream of water that can cause serious injuries, said Battalion Chief Hector Torres, a Fire Department spokesman.

The break of a 10-inch water main at Interstate 83 near Maryland Avenue likely won't be fixed for a few days because it's in a bad spot and repairs will require specific equipment, according to officials from the city Department of Public Works. DPW spokesman Kurt Kocher said the break occurred at about 4:30 p.m. Saturday, and crews shut off water so it would not leak onto the highway and freeze. That also cut water flow to the University of Baltimore Law Center, which is near the intersection of West Mount Royal and Maryland avenues.