For at least one more year, water shortages will be the most pressing challenge for Carroll County commissioners.
“Securing enough water is without a doubt one of the most serious concerns and challenges we have,” Commissioner Julia Gouge said. “Without water, we cannot expand our commercial and industrial base. In some of our towns, construction stops because the state says there is not enough water.”
Westminster, for instance, clamped down in August with water restrictions, and Mayor Tom Ferguson does not expect to lift them anytime soon.
Its reservoir is still 5.5 feet below the normal level of 25 feet, said Jeff Glass, the town?s acting director of public works.
The county?s master development plan, called its Pathways Plan, will be completed and released next month, Gouge said.
It was intended to be done in August but was held up because the Maryland Department of the Environment and the county could not agree on some aspects, said Steve Horn, the county?s planning director.
The county has always pushed for three more reservoirs to solve its water woes. The state did not agree before, but Horn said it is beginning to come around.
“We are beginning to hear more favorable comments from MDE,” Horn said. “I think it?s an evolving process on their part. Even though [reservoirs are] difficult to permit and construct, they are part of a multi-water-use supply.”
MDE is exploring all options, said Kim Lamphier, spokeswoman for the department.
“MDE is working closely with the Maryland Department of Planning and Carroll County to address concerns about and solutions for future water supplies,” Lamphier said. “Reservoirs are part of that discussion, although we recognize that planning and permitting of reservoirs is a very lengthy process.”
Development is beginning to creep into rural areas, outside municipalities that were intended to absorb the buildings, but the county hopes the Pathways Plan will redirect it, Horn said.
More multi-use projects should transform areas of the county into less of a bedroom community by building apartments on top of stores, a way to use land more efficiently, Horn said.
