Drink up, citizens, while we can. And prepare to pay up for future water supplies. A state report reveals not only that Maryland’s outlook is bad, we don’t even know how bad. Ignorance means the single most important factor in public health and economic growth — adequate supply of potable water — is at risk.
The Advisory Committee on the Management and Protection of the State’s Water Resources recommended $72 million for studies on long-term water supplies. That probably is necessary because the state and municipalities have no concept of how much water we have where, the quality, watershed preservation, total consumption or regional planning needed for efficient growth.
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The eight-year study may seem long, but harsh reality is massive and complicated. Maryland’s Department of the Environment established this advisory committee after the devastating 2002 drought.
Despite some relief since then and a false sense of security buoyed by superficial views of recovering reservoirs and flowing rivers, our region is on the edge of the severe, long-term Southeastern drought. A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast predicts moderate drought spreading inexorably to Maryland.
Unfortunately, we don’t even know how or where effectively to invest in supply, plan for demand and allocate consumption for best use.
Compounding the crisis is our ignorance about tainting the water we do have. Everything from lawn chemical runoff and leaking septic tanks to massive sewer overflows contaminate the water we drink, and there is no practicable way to get the poisons out.
Think about Loch Raven Reservoir, a drinking water supply for Baltimore County and City. In just one incident June 20, more than 900,000 gallons of raw sewage leaked from the Cockeysville pumping station into the reservoir. That includes not only fecal matter and pathogens, but everything we flush in the toilet or pour down the drain. No wonder an Associated Press study earlier this year found drugs in municipal water supplies.
Think about water we draw from the Susquehanna River, an open sewer for 4 million people and thousands of businesses, industries and farms in three states.
Think about wells contaminated by three centuries of toxic seepage.
We don’t even begin to know how badly we contaminated our most essential resource, much less what to do about it.
One clear fact is the more we draw it down, the worse it’s going to get.
We need to study our water future and act before the inevitable crisis is upon us. And we need to pay for it by charging realistic rates. That’s a two-for. It not only funds desperately needed knowledge and improvements, it encourages conservation.
WEB EXTRA
Read the entire report:
http://www.mde.state.md.us/assets/document/WolmanReport_Vol1.pdf
http://www.mde.state.md.us/assets/document/WolmanReport_Vol2Appendices.pdf
Check the NOAA Drought Monitor:
http://drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html
Click here to read an Associated Press series, Tainted Water
Read Frank Keegan’s column, Sludge, trash show our destiny and hope
