Collision course: Rapid growth and dwindling groundwater in Charles County.

Water and other environmental issues were on a lot of minds during a meeting on February 4th between Charles County commissioners and the mayors and council members of La Plata and Indian Head in Waldorf. Agenda: The drop in groundwater levels in regional aquifers and efforts to conserve the resource.

It is critical that the towns and county work together to conserve groundwater because of the dwindling supply of the resource being pumped out of regional aquifers, said commissioners’ President F. Wayne Cooper (D).

‘‘We have to work together to plan our future,” he said, adding that the use of treated effluent water from local wastewater treatment plants through a closed loop system is a good head start in tackling the problem. We’re all working off the same aquifers. We need to manage the resource together.”

According to the latest data from the U.S. Geological Survey, county residents and businesses are pulling between 12 million and 13 million gallons a day of groundwater from aquifers in the region, said Jason Groth, the county’s program manager for adequate public facilities.

La Plata Town Manager Daniel Mears said water use increases 55 percent in town during the warm months when people are watering lawns, washing cars and filling swimming pools. The town is considering a policy that would impose higher water fees on customers who use more than the average amount of the resource in their homes. La Plata’s water is withdrawn from the lower Patapsco aquifer, which is rapidly being depleted.

Charles County recently formed a water resources advisory committee to formulate recommendations on how to deal with the shrinking supply of groundwater in the region. The county is scheduled to meet with Prince George’s County officials to cement an agreement established about a decade ago that would enable the county to withdraw up to 5 million gallons of Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission water a day to offset use of groundwater in the area.

A new state law — HB 1141 — enacted last year by the Maryland General Assembly also mandates that counties and towns start seriously looking at ways to conserve groundwater, including the incorporation of a water resource element in updates of local comprehensive plans.  The law also mandates that jurisdictions include priority preservation areas and municipal growth projections in comprehensive plans.

Counties and towns also need to assess the amount of groundwater being used by private deep wells and commercial and industrial facilities. ‘‘It’s abundantly clear that we need to develop a water resource element in our comprehensive plans,” said Indian Head Mayor Dennis Scheessele. 

‘‘The state wants a more dedicated assessment so our projected growth is in line with the water supply,” she said. ‘‘Individual wells are in the same aquifers that we’re in. This is a regional problem.”

If a jurisdiction does not comply with the new law by October 2009, officials will not be able to change the zoning of any property in their jurisdiction until it is in compliance with the law.

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Comments

[Jeanette Krause]

I like what you have to say about immigration reform and about NOT offering amnesty, but I cannot vote for anyone who wants to ignore the scientific evidence of global warming. Forget about Al Gore and Steny Hoyer - watch the National Geographic special titled, "6 degrees...". If you still think global warming is a Democratic plot after watching the whole special - then there is no hope for you.

Think about it - what if you are wrong? Your children and mine deserve a world that is safe and that includes being safe from the devastation of global warming.

It would be refreshing to find a Republican who hasn't blindly jumped on the anti-global warming bandwagon... one who uses his intelligence to investigate further and make an INFORMED decision.

[Mike Hethmon]

Jeanette,

Thanks for your post, but I think you are distorting my position on global warming by calling it "blind" or "uninformed." Au contraire!

I am a global warming skeptic, not because I reject the concept, but I have not been convinced that (1) it cannot be explained as cyclical variation by conventional climatology, and (2) because the Al Gore "solutions" are to impose draconian restrictions on Americans' personal freedoms and quality of life.

Even if global warming IS happening, the most effective solution is to cut growth in emissions and energy entrophy by reducing demand. The only humane way to reduce demand is to reducing population growth rates.

Reducing population growth in the U.S. (and most developed nations worldwide) means reducing immigration. The liberal Pew Foundation predicts the U.S. population will almost double, to half a billion residents, by 2050. 84% of that increase will come from immigration. Any reduction in the American "carbon footprint" under the current population tsunami scenario is doomed beyond the short-term, even if we all are forced by the Obamaistas to live like Cubans.

Because of historic advances in the status of women, the American domestic birth rate stabilized in the late 1970s. Virtually all the sprawl and crowding we experience in Maryland today is the result of our failed immigration policies.

Destroying the American quality of life won't stop climate change, if in fact it is occuring and if in fact it is bad for mankind.

We can reach sustainability at current levels of prosperity by securing the borders, making attrition through enforcement a national priority, and reducing legal immigration from its current historic highs to the sustainable rates of the 1950s. Americans will become more productive because we will become more valuable as workers and producers. Remember, the immigration moratorium from 1921-1965 was the greatest equalizer of Americans in our history.

With our nation secured at a level of sustained prosperity, we can then assist other nations to stabilize their populations and raise their standards of living, over 2 to 3 generations. Ultimate global sustainability and prosperity is thus dependent upon America safeguarding our land, environment, and traditional freedoms--in this generation. That's why I'm a Republican.