Water Restrictions

The soccer, field hockey, cross country and football teams at county high schools began a rigorous preseason schedule Saturday, running and working out on brown, drought-hardened turf.The schools are watering occasionally, even though some county residents have complained. Hard fields increase the risk of injury to athletes, officials said.Watering, even sporadically, will preserve the grass and cut down on mishaps for the athletes. Maintenance crews are adhering to state-imposed restrictions that allow them to water the fields on a reduced schedule.

Teresa Kostelec of Ellicott City took out a second mortgage so she and her family could swim in their back yard next month. Now, because of the drought, they are staring at a huge hole that might remain dry -- unless they pay perhaps hundreds of dollars extra."

What's cooking? You are.The great July bake-off ended yesterday at 99 degrees at BWI -- 14 degrees higher than when the month began. In between were 21 days when temperatures were over 90.The month had only one record-breaking day -- 102 degrees at Baltimore-Washington International Airport on July 5 -- but July set a record for the number of days exceeding 90.Relief should arrive this afternoon, as a cold front sweeps down from the upper Midwest. Tomorrow through Thursday look even better, with highs in the 80s instead of the 90s, said John Margraf, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va."

The first day of state-imposed water restrictions brought out the whistleblowers, innovators and philosophers in Howard County.The day after Gov. Parris N. Glendening announced limits on watering gardens, washing cars and filling swimming pools, some residents did not hesitate to tattle on their neighbors. The emergency restrictions carry the threat of warnings and possible fines and jail time.County police spokesman Sgt. Morris Carroll said, "We are encouraging people not to call the police," but rather just say something to a neighbor who may be violating the water restrictions.

NEIGHBORS snitching on neighbors, police banging on the doors of startled citizens in the middle of the night, people weaseling around water restrictions by taking several baths a day and using the tub water to keep their yards green you gotta love a good drought for the way it brings us all together.God forbid something really serious, like a massive twister or rampaging flood, ever hits Maryland.We'd be eating our young before the day was out.Here's what I love best: More than a week into the state's mandatory curbs on watering, there are still homeowners tilting their heads to one side like confused Scotch terriers and asking: "Um what am I allowed to water again?"

TEMPERATURES are soaring and rainfall has been as scarce as profound statements from city mayoral candidates.So Marylanders need to take Gov. Parris N. Glendening's declared drought emergency seriously: resist those three-hour lawn sprinklings; stop washing your car every three days; and turn off the gorgeous, water-hogging plaster fountain that's sitting in your landscaped yard.The National Weather Service confirmed that this summer's drought is the state's worst in 70 years. Rainfall is 40 percent below normal, and the evidence can be found in the state's waterways -- where a record number of fish kills has been recorded -- on farms with withering crops and on brown lawns everywhere.

Dribs and drabs of advice on the droughtIn all my years living in Baltimore, I never thought we would have a serious water problem. At times in the past, some water restrictions would be imposed during hot weather, but this was infrequent and never a hardship.Now for the first time I am purchasing bottled water and treating it like gold. Although I never wasted water, I felt free to use it as I pleased.Now, I am constantly trying to find methods to save water.In the past, I always let the water run when I washed dishes by hand.

Recent rains have brought temporary relief to many drought-stricken parts of Maryland, but Gov. Parris N. Glendening said yesterday he has no plans to roll back mandatory water restrictions any time soon.The 1.43 inches of rain that fell early yesterday at Baltimore-Washington International Airport are a drop in the bucket compared with what is needed to end the region's drought, state officials and weather experts said."As far as the drought is concerned, this is helpful, but on a large scale it doesn't change much of anything," said Howard Silverman, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va.The region needs more than a foot of rain to catch up to normal rainfall levels for this year, he said.

As the heat wave continues and reservoir levels drop, water pressure is low and tempers are frayed in South Carroll.For the third consecutive year, residents of the county's most populated area are coping with water restrictions brought on by heat, dry weather and high demand. Many attribute water shortages to the county's poor planning, which has allowed development to continue."I am sure they are not telling people buying all these expensive new houses that they might not have water," said Carolyn Fairbank of Eldersburg.

Nearly two weeks after Gov. Parris N. Glendening imposed statewide water restrictions, more Maryland businesses are asking that the rules be eased, claiming special circumstances.Sod farmers and swimming pool industry representatives are following the leads of carwash and golf course owners trying to get rules relaxed. Only carwashes have managed to win significant changes.In a letter to Glendening, Maryland sod farmers said the ban on lawn watering is all but putting them out of business because people won't buy turf when they know they won't be allowed to water it."

Fatal crash victim Is identified 3 Anne Arundel County police have identified the victim of a fatal crash Thursday as Douglas Barry Newgent, 43, of the 3500 block of Patuxent River Road in Davidsonville. Newgent lost control of his Honda Civic on an exit ramp from Route 3 to Route 32 in Millersville and crashed into a tree. The vehicle was torn in half, and Newgent died at the scene, police said. - Andrea F. Siegel Water restrictions now mandatory in areas 4 The voluntary water restrictions announced Thursday for 150,000 residents of Northwest Baltimore and Baltimore County have been made mandatory.

The building where Johns Hopkins Hospital cares for its transplant patients is on water restrictions this week after routine tests of the water system on July 2 turned up evidence of the bacterium that causes Legionnaires' disease. A hospital spokesman said no patients or employees have been infected by the organism, which can cause a lung infection fatal in 5 percent to 30 percent of cases. "No one is sick. Nor has anyone at the hospital been identified, either patient or staff, as having picked up a Legionella infection," said Hopkins spokesman David March.

A drought that first shriveled the corn and hay crops in Southern Maryland and on the Eastern Shore is forcing some residents across the state to suspend watering their lawns, filling their pools and washing their cars. The latest city to issue mandatory restrictions is Westminster, which joins two other municipalities in Carroll County in banning outdoor water use. Emmitsburg in Frederick County and much of St. Mary's County have also put the brakes on outdoor watering in the past month.

As persistent dry conditions have led several Carroll County municipalities to enact voluntary water restrictions, Mount Airy could go one step further to temporarily ban the use of outdoor sprinklers as soon as this week, Mayor Frank Johnson said. Mount Airy officials recently unveiled a tiered system for phasing in possible water restrictions that could last until Sept. 15 and delay new water and sewer connections from being established before that date, Johnson said. "Usage is inching up as the drought continues," Johnson said.

Officials at the Maryland Department of the Environment had little choice but to warn Westminster to stop issuing building permits until the city develops an adequate water supply. In times of drought, Westminster is susceptible to a water shortage, not only because of inadequate resources but also because officials there have permitted so much new development in recent years. By the city's own accounting, about 500 new residential connections are in various stages of approval. That's big growth in a community of 18,000.

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.

Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens imposed mandatory water restrictions in portions of northern Anne Arundel yesterday as repairs continued on a 42-inch water main that ruptured in Glen Burnie on Saturday evening. "We may have held off a little bit if we were not facing this intense heat but we know water usage goes up when it's this hot," Owens said. "And we just want to make sure everybody has water." Residents in parts of Glen Burnie, Pasadena, Curtis Bay and Orchard Beach are to stop all outdoor water use - such as watering lawns and washing cars - until the broken pipe has been replaced, said Ronald E. Bowen, the county's director of public works.

For all the rain that fell last week on Anne Arundel County, none of it made a dent in the mandatory water restrictions faced by thousands of residents in the western and northern tiers of the county. Five days of storms that ended Wednesday dropped 4 1/2 inches of rain on Severn and more than 5 inches on Crofton, Odenton and Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, according to estimates by the National Weather Service. But if an effort by the county's Department of Public Works remains on schedule, water restrictions that have been in place since May could be relaxed or lifted weeks before the scheduled end date of Oct. 1. The department has installed more than a mile of water main from the Dorsey Run water treatment plant in an effort to create a pipeline that would direct about 1 million gallons daily toward affected communities from Maryland City to Brooklyn Park, according to Matt Mirenzi, a utility operations administrator for the department.

Declaring that water levels have returned to normal, Anne Arundel County officials lifted yesterday an outdoor ban on public water usage in the western and northern sections of the county. Although the ban is lifted, communities from Maryland City to Brooklyn Park remain under mandatory water restrictions until Oct. 1. Voluntary limits on public water usage for the Marley Neck Peninsula, excluding Gibson Island, also are in effect during the same period. County officials asked that residents in affected areas remain diligent in complying with the restrictions so there is an adequate water supply for customers and fire protection.

ISSUE: Water supply continues to be an issue in Anne Arundel County. Yesterday, county officials lifted a ban on outdoor water use along the far western and northern tiers of the county that had been implemented last week. But the county now returns to water restrictions that went into effect in early May. Though the situation has improved, the restrictions are expected to be in place until October, and county officials are imploring residents to adhere to them. The police have said officers would issue warnings for those who violate the restrictions, then hand out fines starting at $125 a violation.