Carroll County has urged residents to conserve water year-round as part of a new conservation plan.
The plan calls on residents to take voluntary steps such as installing water-saving showers and toilets and closely monitoring water use.
“The message that we tried to get out in the plan is it?s everybody?s responsibility to conserve,” said Robyn Gilden, chairwoman of the committee that wrote the plan. “It really is very broad. It covers a wide range of perspectives and strategies.”
Carroll should be Maryland?s fastest-growing county, the state has predicted. But county officials are quick to add one disclaimer: It will grow only as much as its diminishing water supply allows.
The county?s 20-year blueprint for development has stalled over uncertainty about the county?s dwindling water supply. The plan hinges on whether the Maryland Department of the Environment will allow Carroll to add another reservoir.
But a state study of Carroll?s water supply, due in August, has been delayed, pushing back the development plan.
With its conservation plan, the county hopes to allow as much growth expand as possible.
The committee included four county Environmental Advisory Council members, along with county planners, schools officials, city administrators and water geologists.
Gilden said people seem to conserve water only during a drought. But conservation is so critical to growth, it should always be a concern, she said.
“It?s really important we not only think about it during drought times, but all times,” Gilden said. “It?s a shift of thought.”
And it’s not only residents who need to follow the rules, but schools and the government as well because the plan broadens individual towns? water restrictions to encompass the county.
The plan will go to the county?s Water Resources Coordinating Council for approval.
CONSERVATION PLAN
» Impose emergency water restrictions throughout the county
» Closely monitor water meters to measure how much water used
» Create incentive program to encourage using low-flow showers and toilets
» Hire specialists to train large companies to conserve
