A farm where Soviet spy Whittaker Chambers hid evidence of Communist spying could be damaged by flooding from a reservoir the state has approved, preservationists say.
Chambers, who later became a critic of Communism, hid microfilm, which in 1948 outed Communist spy Alger Hiss, inside a hollowed-out pumpkin on the 380-acre farm, and President Ronald Reagan declared the farm a National Historic Landmark.
Opponents ? including 12 U.S. congressmen ? criticize the reservoir as an encroachment of the National Historic Landmark, a place “where Whittaker Chambers found sanctuary from the Communist underground and where he bravely and publicly stood his ground to challenge an enemy Communist network while hiding evidence of guilt on this farm,” Mauricio Tamargo, a lawyer from Burke, Va., wrote to county commissioners.
Carroll?s three-year water-and-sewer plan for a Union Mills reservoir on 100 acres near the back of the farm won approval last week from the Maryland Department of the Environment.
The county needs more water to sustain its mushrooming population, and the plan has been on the table for decades, officials say.
“It?s not just for development; the reservoir is needed to serve the population we have now,” said Vivian Laxton, a county spokeswoman. “We?re tapped out.”
Commissioners approved funds for design and engineering for the reservoir this year, said Steve Horn, the county?s planning director, and construction would not begin for at least 10 years.
“There?s nothing I know that anyone could do to stop them from using their land the way they choose,” said John Chambers, Whittaker?s son, who owns and lives at the farm. “I just ask for the same thing.”
The county owns 1,500 acres adjacent to Chambers? farm, and he says it has enough land to put the reservoir elsewhere.
“They really don?t need the land anyway,” Chambers said. “They?ve got more than enough land to develop a reservoir.”
Horn said the location could slightly change.
“One would expect as part of the development of the reservoir in coming years there would be refinement as far as the exact location,” he said. “It could change some, but I?m not comfortable saying it would be substantially different.”
