WSSC To Serve Homes in Waldorf

Growing Charles Activates Old Deal

In an effort to deal with a rapidly depleting supply of drinking water, Charles County will begin pumping water from the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission to several thousand homes in the Waldorf area.

WSSC, which serves Montgomery and Prince George's counties, will provide 1.4 million gallons of water a day to Charles homes under an agreement that dates to March 1987. Over the past year, Charles commissioners have met with WSSC officials and Prince George's County Council members to activate the old contract.

Charles officials called the move a major step for their county, which has relied exclusively on well water but has seen its groundwater levels decline to the point that the county could run out of drinking water by 2030. A study released last year from the Maryland Geological Survey found that Charles will need alternatives to the aquifers that supply its water to keep up with the county's projected population growth over the next 20 years.

"Our goal is to protect our aquifers so that our water supply is sustainable," said county commissioners President Wayne Cooper (D-At Large). "We desperately need to slow down the amount of water we're taking out of the ground."

St. Mary's and Calvert counties also rely on underground water sources, but aquifers in those jurisdictions are expected to be able to handle population growth past 2030.

Officials from WSSC and Charles said they do not know when the water will start flowing into the county or exactly which houses in the county's northern development district will be affected. Homes that switch to WSSC can expect rates to increase because the agency uses surface water, which is generally more expensive to process than groundwater. The agency raised rates by 8 percent this year, and Montgomery officials have argued for an additional fee of $20 per month to make repairs to the system's aging infrastructure.

Cooper said the county is exploring ways to keep costs down for residents in the development district.

Under the renewed agreement with WSSC, water will be channeled through Prince George's to a connection point on Bealle Hill Road in Accokeek. The county paid nearly $1.6 million to construct the water line and a pumping station, which was completed in April 2000.

"The pieces have been in place, but the water has not been turned on," WSSC spokesman John White said.

The agreement would not make Charles part of the WSSC governance structure, unlike Prince George's and Montgomery counties, which appoint the agency's commissioners. The arrangement provides for the commission to sell water to the county at a wholesale price. WSSC has similar contracts with Howard County and with Bowie and Rockville, White said.

The contract would also allow WSSC to restrict water flow to Charles during shortages, White said.

"This should keep us from needing to build the next two or three wells, but we're looking for other solutions as well," Cooper said.

Despite the concerns about cost and sustainability, Charles officials said, acting on the WSSC agreement was the best choice for the county's rapidly growing population. In the most densely populated parts of the county -- Waldorf, La Plata and Indian Head -- wells are pumping water more quickly than aquifers can replenish the supply, creating what geologists call "cones of depression." The Lower Patapsco, one of Charles's major aquifers, has the deepest cones of depression in Maryland, state geologist David M. Drummond said.

Charles officials are considering a number of options to help deal with the looming water crisis, including a desalinization plant that would make brackish water from the Potomac River drinkable. This year, plans for a system to use recycled toilet water to cool a power plant were scrapped by the plant owner, Mirant Services.