Water Problems

Carroll commissioners are urging homeowners in water-starved Maple Crest, a 30-year-old subdivision south of Westminster, to attend a public hearing this evening to discuss extending city water lines to their community. The meeting is expected to be the final opportunity for homeowners to comment on the proposed project for the neighborhood, which has no public water. Residents rely on private wells, some that run low part of the year and others that go dry during drought. More than a few have dried up, forcing residents to bear the burden of trucking in water.

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration's negligence in regulating the bottled-water industry has allowed contaminated water to reach consumers and has created confusion over product labeling, according to a House investigative report released yesterday.Last year's worldwide recall of Perrier products, brought about by the discovery of unsafe levels of benzene, focused attention on potential health problems, said Representative John D. Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Welcome to the itinerant seminar of Bill Bradley, like unsyrupy 7-Up, the uncola of presidential candidates.The former New Jersey senator sits one recent morning in a circle with about 20 experts on water problems who represent such groups as Friends of the River and Save the Bay. For about 90 minutes, he engages them in a low-key, not to say esoteric, conversation about ways to conserve California's most precious natural commodity.Mr....

COLLEGE PARK - Other than a few water problems - which most in the state can relate to these days - the University of Maryland's $108 million Comcast Center has gotten positive reviews and possesses the potential to become one of the more distinctive arenas in college basketball. Senior Night tonight also will mark the end of the Terps' first season in their new home. The facility was still a work in progress when it opened in October, but the consensus is a thumbs up for a project that replaced Cole Field House, a campus landmark since 1955.

The day Rose Ann Fischer moved into her $247,000 dream house in Sykesville she was reduced to tears, she said. They weren't tears of joy.Last summer, her family selected a lot in Hawk Ridge Farmsubdivision, one of several Powers Homes developments in Carroll County. While she packed at her home in New Jersey, she envisioned her two children playing in the grassy back yard of their new home."I loved the model when I saw it, and I wouldn't look anywhere else," she said.Five months after moving into the house on Caracara Court, the only vision she has from her kitchen window is a muddy expanse leading to a huge mound of dirt.

A 40-foot rig has been drilling deep into the rock in northeast Carroll County, seeking a treasure underground: water. Lacking public reservoirs, town officials must look deep in the earth for water to fill their storage tanks and keep residents' taps flowing. With demand increasing from development and the water table strained by drought, the well-drilling season goes year-round -- through rain, ice and snow. Where to drill is the question. The search for waterlogged rock -- the kind that's fractured or full of voids for water to seep into -- has moved from the art of the divining rod to the science of satellite photography and electro-shocking the earth.

When a car is breaking down, it's usually pretty obvious: It makes awful noises, spits smoke, stops running. But when an appliance starts to go, it's sometimes harder to tell it's going, or even what is wrong.That's the case for a reader in Baltimore County, who asked, "What are the symptoms of a dying water heater, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of a traditional tank-style heater compared to the systems that heat the water instantly so you don't have a tank to keep warm?"Since the message was e-mail, we were able to write back and ask a couple of questions: Is the water heater powered by gas, oil or electricity?

As a land developer in Baltimore County, I disagree with your view of the state's pending storm water regulations completely ("Storm over storm water," Jan. 26). The single-family home subdivisions that I am building contribute minutely to the problems of the Chesapeake Bay. My projects all have stormwater facilities that catch and clean water. You are missing the elephant in the room with us! How about all of the old projects that don't have any facilities and the runoff then dumps directly into the Chesapeake Bay?

Dear Mr. Uhler: My problem is a summer cottage in St. Mary's County. It was built in 1998. I went down one weekend and under the house was a flood. It soaked in overnight with no great harm. After turning the water off, we found that a piece of the water pipe had broken. My husband bought a part and replaced the valve. The plumber suggested we should turn the water off when leaving for a week or two. I have been doing that at the circuit breaker and it gives me a sense of security, but last time I entered the house after several days' absence, my electric water heater was making a little noise, almost a gentle roar.