Posted on 05/06/2002 9:49:25 AM PDT by cogitator
City water supply might go dry
The City of Frederick faces the possibility of exhausting its water supply — including its reservoirs — before summer's end, according to data presented by city water chief Marc Stachowski on Thursday.
In order to deal with the most severe, waterless future, the city might implement planned water outages, similar to power "brownouts," said Fred L. Eisenhart Jr., director of the city's public works department.
The potential problem lies in the city's reliance on the Monocacy River, and the "trigger point" that will take the river's 3 million gallons of water out of the city's system if the drought gets worse.
Based on state regulations, the city is prohibited from drawing water from the river if its flow rate falls below 45 cubic feet per second.
At a conservation meeting for the city's top 100 water users, Mr. Stachowski discussed how the city was denied use of the Monocacy during the droughts of 1966 and 1999. In 1966, the city was kept from drawing water from the Monocacy for 56 days when it fell below 45 cfs.; in 1999, the city had to do without the river's water for 12 days.
According to current river flow trends, Mr. Stachowski said the Monocacy River could fall below the trigger point for as long as 60 to 70 days this summer.
When the city is cut off from using the Monocacy, it has to rely on two reservoirs that can supply no more than 6.9 million gallons a day, Mr. Stachowski said.
Based on current capacity, the city only has about 80 days of water in its reservoirs. In the worst case scenario, that would leave a reserve of about 10 to 20 days of water for the city.
Perhaps even before it gets to that point, Mr. Eisenhart said "you'll have a scenario where you'll have outages in some parts of the city. It absolutely is a real possibility."
Mr. Stachowski and other city officials admit they are in the unenviable position of having to either borrow or beg for water to get through the summer.
In terms of borrowing, the city has an informal agreement with the county to get as much as 1.5 million gallons of water per day. Mike Marschner, director of county utilities, said that agreement would only last as long as "the county has extra water during this emergency."
In terms of begging, Mr. Stachowski said the city is hoping the state will "relax its flow-by requirement." The city has already asked the state to allow it to continue drawing if the river's level falls below 45 cfs, but no decision has been made yet.
The city's dwindling water resource has officials pressing the conservation message harder than ever.
In the month since Gov. Parris Glendening imposed his mandatory water restrictions, the city has actually reduced usage by 2.7 percent. The problem is that daily usage still hovers over 7 million gallons a day — which is more than the city's capacity if the Monocacy falls below the trigger point.
The city's stated goal is to achieve an overall conservation rate of about 15 percent, according to Mr. Eisenhart. "I'd say we want to get our average daily demand in the 6.2 million gallon a day range," Mr. Eisenhart said.
Lowering daily water usage would keep the city within its 6.9 million gallon daily capacity. It would also keep the city from having to go to the county more than is necessary — especially considering the county may not always have water to give.
Lower daily water usage would also "lengthen the number of days our reservoirs would last," Mr. Stachowski said.
By taking the water message to the city's top 100 users — about half of whom attended — Mr. Stachowski said it was a way to get businesses used to the idea of cutting back. That because he fully expects to have to call the top water users this summer and say, "'Hey, the Monocacy shut down, you have to cut your consumption 20 percent."
Thanks for the good wishes!
It's somewhat different. There isn't a lot of irrigation supply from the Monocacy (even though there's a lot of farmland around here, the farmers usually get enough rain) and I don't think that there are any endangered species in the river that force it to be at a certain level.
But I'm sure everyone is sympathetic with people that don't have enough water!
Funny that the Monocacy makes the news on FR. During our East Coast vacation in 1999 my 2 boys spent hours catching crayfish in the Monocacy, right in the middle of Frederick. They were using a stick with a piece of string tied to it. A crayfish would grab the string with his pincer and they'd jerk him out of the water before he could let go. The river was loaded with big, ornery crawdads . . .
Fred L. Eisenhart Jr. is either bluffing or he is a moron. You cannot depressurize a water supply system and still have the water be potable. Unless they go to a systemwide boil water alert for the week after every scheduled outage, or the Director is talking thru his hat.
It's a bit dated, but the county's "roots" are agricultural and rural. Frederick has become very yuppified (I'm probably guilty of being labeled a semi-yuppie, but I live outside the city!), and has lots of new tract housing developments. The most recent election in the city was a big contrast between the traditional "old boy" network of long-time residents and the new immigrants, which tend to be more liberal and more Democratic.
It sure isn't Montgomery County (but upper Montgomery and lower Frederick County are pretty similar).
The author I speak of is George Pelecanos, a native of Silver Spring.
I guess they've covered all the bases that way.
www.intellicast.com has a good article on it.
I lived in Frederick during the mid-80's. Back then it could easily be described as being right on the borderline between "redneck" rural Maryland and the liberal, bureacratic yuppie sprawl of the D.C beltway. The city of Frederick itself was already a lost cause to the sprawling beast. But you could still find normal Americans just north and west of the city limits.
Which is where I live, of course.
For anyone who might still be interested, here it is:
Since it can cause abnormal weather relating to floods and drought, that's good news.
They also have a drought monitoring project, located here.
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