Water System

After a recent outbreak of Legionnaires' disease that killed four people in Harford County, a task force is being set up to evaluate whether additional guidelines are needed to reduce the risk of infections in Maryland's health facilities and work sites, the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene announced yesterday.The task force of health care professionals will also determine what type of institutions will be regulated by the new guidelines and whether mandatory testing of water systems should be standard practice.

To ease water shortages in Carroll's most populated area, county officials have entered into negotiations with Baltimore City to draw more water from Liberty Reservoir.The county would like to increase by 2 million gallons its daily allocation of water from the reservoir, a 75 billion-gallon lake that the city owns, and expand the Freedom Treatment Plant in Eldersburg.The county must win the city's approval to proceed.The county commissioners and several department heads who met recently with George G. Balog, Baltimore's public works director, said that the city was receptive to their proposals.

In Baltimore CityHigh level of bacteria causing Legionnaires' found at rehab centerAfter detecting a high level of the bacteria that cause Legionnaires' disease in a water tank, Maryland Rehabilitation Center on Argonne Drive sent home 120 disabled clients who live there during the week, and canceled classes for 180 others yesterday and today.No one has contracted the disease, an acute and sometimes fatal form of pneumonia. The bacteria were detected during a routine check of the water system, and authorities planned to flush the building's water system last night to kill the bacteria.

Maryland may be suffering through one of its worst droughts ever, but Baltimore-area residents hooked up to the city's water system have little cause to worry that their faucets will run dry anytime soon.Despite assertions by state officials that all of Maryland is gripped by a water crisis, the regional network of reservoirs and pipelines developed by Baltimore over the past century has secured enough of the precious liquid to last well into next year, even if the skies yield not another drop, its overseer says.

Even as Harford Memorial Hospital officials said they acted properly in handling four cases of Legionnaires' disease, family members of a woman who died of the disease complained yesterday that the hospital delayed telling them about the infection.Evelyn Blakely, daughter of Elizabeth M. Cox, 79, said the family was not notified when Cox was diagnosed with Legionnaires' disease July 2. They were not told that she had the disease until Thursday -- two days after she died from the disease, Blakely said.

HEBRON, West Bank -- In the heat of summer, when Palestinian water taps run dry, Ibrahim J'bour drives from his village to the outskirts of this city, where he buys water on the black market from a Palestinian who claims to get it from a Jewish settlement.J'bour makes the trip three times a day and pays $6 for 1,056 gallons. But it's the only way the farmer can ensure that his 200 sheep and 20-member family will have enough water during this summer's severe regional drought.In the parched Middle East, water is more sought after than oil. It is a commodity in great demand and in short supply in a region where enemies outnumber friends.

To ease water shortages in Carroll's most populated area, county officials have entered into negotiations with Baltimore City to draw more water from Liberty Reservoir.The county would like to increase by 2 million gallons its daily allocation of water from the reservoir, a 75 billion-gallon lake the city owns, and expand the Freedom Treatment Plant in Eldersburg. The county must win the city's approval to proceed.The county commissioners and several department heads who met recently with George G. Balog, Baltimore's public works director, said the city was receptive to their proposals.

A case of Legionnaire's disease diagnosed Monday night at Union Memorial Hospital prompted officials to purge the hospital's water system yesterday and search for the source of the bacteria.The patient, who officials would not identify, was being treated in the hospital's intensive care unit yesterday. The person apparently picked up the bacterial infection while being treated at the hospital, according to Wayne Campbell, chief of infectious diseases at the North Baltimore institution.Campbell said that physicians found no evidence that anyone else in the hospital has been affected.

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.

While South Carroll, the county's most populous area, struggles with a water shortage, neighbors to the north face the opposite problem.The residents of Diamond Hills, just outside Westminster, say they have too much water.And too much of a good thing is bad for the plumbing and bad for the checkbook."I replaced my water heater a few years ago because I thought it was leaking," said Ray Kerr, who was one of the first to move into the subdivision, off Kate Wagner Road south of the city limits, in 1994.

Deer Creek will be increasingly stressed by population growth in the next two decades, much of it caused by expansion at Aberdeen Proving Ground because of BRAC, according to a new regional study. The communities that rely on Deer Creek should develop additional water sources, the study by the Susquehanna River Basin Commission said. The Deer Creek watershed, a 171-square-mile area that begins in York County, Pa., and continues through Harford County to the Susquehanna River, includes a 73-mile stream that supplies about 50,000 people with water.

Fourth-grader Corey Brooks dipped the small white strip of test paper into the glass vial of cloudy water taken from the school parking lot. "Look at all the sediment in the bottom," said one of his lab partners, Brady Meixsell. A few minutes later, the fourth-grader and his peers at Sandymount Elementary School in Finksburg had determined the water's nitrogen and pH levels, and reasoned that its lack of clarity would mean a drop in the production of algae and zooplankton, minute animal life that floats in water.

County and municipal leaders are moving forward with a partnership that would establish one regional water system and consolidate the myriad facilities that now supply Harford's homes and businesses. County Executive David R. Craig, with support from the mayors of the three municipalities, will seek a $300,000 state grant to fund a consultant's study of the regional water supply. The research will focus on benefits, costs and drawbacks to joining the systems under one authority. Pooled resources will maximize the assets and save on operations and maintenance costs, officials said.

For the cash-strapped Maryland Zoo, finding money to repair decrepit buildings and an outdated water system and to pay for other overdue maintenance projects is an understandable struggle. What homeowner hasn't let a few repairs slide? But the "to do" list has to get done now - the zoo's national accreditation depends on it. Improvements at the Druid Hill campus also are critical to its viability and support from loyal patrons. The Maryland Zoo has until September to show significant progress on correcting deficiencies cited last fall by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

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.

The sad story seems to be retold in western Howard County every year. A large home with a brick facade and arching doorway -- sometimes resting atop a rolling crest with panoramic views of green fields -- catches fire. The nearest hydrant is miles away. Tanker trucks from fire departments in Howard and neighboring counties line up at the nearest water sources and begin hauling and dumping water into 3,000-gallon inflatable pools they have placed near the front yard. The neighborhood is saved -- but the home is incinerated.

Central City lifts water-use restrictions Westminster has lifted voluntary water restrictions after significant rainfall in recent weeks. The city's water system had been on "yellow" status, and residents were asked to conserve water. As of Jan. 10, the water system was moved to "green," or "conservation" status. City officials request that residents continue to conserve water. Information: 410-848-9002. Pastors group to meet Tuesday The Westminster Ministerium will meet at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Westminster Church of the Brethren, Bond Street and Park Place.

Water shortages and burdened public facilities are deterring development throughout Carroll County, but particularly in areas where officials are trying to encourage growth. A lack of new water sources is curtailing residential and industrial development in Taneytown. New Windsor and Hampstead cannot add more homes or businesses until they expand wastewater treatment plants. Future development in South Carroll, already the county's most populous area, depends on the success of several new wells and millions of dollars in upgrades to the Freedom Water Treatment Plant that will take at least two years to complete.

Although problems with its water system turned out to be what Westminster officials described as a "benign event," public health experts warned yesterday that the city's troubles could have been far more dangerous and emphasized that communities must have clear channels of communication. "This wasn't an outbreak, but it could have been," said Thomas A. Burke, an associate professor with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "Luckily, we're not talking about major illnesses this time, but we're talking about the need to improve communications."

Carroll County's public water system will get slightly larger and more costly today when public works officials take over a well that the county did not want to operate. After a two-year court battle, a Carroll County circuit judge ordered the county last month to operate and maintain a private water system in the Bramble Hills development outside Westminster. The water supply issue in the small neighborhood dates to 1998, when residents' dispute with a private well company prompted the Maryland Public Service Commission to intervene.