Pro­tect­ing and puri­fy­ing our community’s fresh drink­ing water is one of our most vital tasks. Whether we use water to quench our thirst, wash our clothes, or bathe, it remains our great­est resource and is strictly reg­u­lated through fed­eral and local guide­lines. So set down that bot­tled water and go to the tap with a reusable bot­tle for a refill.

The drink­ing water avail­able in your com­mu­nity is reg­u­lated by the U.S. Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency, while bot­tled water that is pur­chased is reg­u­lated by the U.S. Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion. Inter­est­ingly, the agen­cies do not fol­low the same guide­lines to reg­u­late the con­sump­tion of water. The EPA’s guide­lines for com­mu­nity water, com­monly used by res­i­dents for drink­ing, are far stricter than they used by the bot­tled water industry.

Reser­voirs and Drink­ing Water Supply

All of Howard County pub­lic water is pur­chased from Bal­ti­more City and the Wash­ing­ton Sub­ur­ban San­i­tary Com­mis­sion (WSSC) through a series of nego­ti­ated legal agree­ments. Under cur­rent agree­ments, aver­age daily capac­ity from Bal­ti­more City is 38.5 mil­lion gal­lons per day (mgd) and from WSSC is 3.0 mgd, for a total of 41.5 mgd. Cur­rent aver­age daily use in the County is 22.4 mgd.

The Bal­ti­more City Reser­voirs are a major drink­ing water sup­ply source for the Bal­ti­more region and the pri­mary source of water for the pub­lic water sup­ply sys­tem in Howard County.

Howard County works coop­er­a­tively with Mont­gomery and Prince George’s Coun­ties, Wash­ing­ton Sub­ur­ban San­i­tary Com­mis­sion, Maryland-National Cap­i­tal Park and Plan­ning Com­mis­sion, Howard Soil Con­ser­va­tion Dis­trict, and Mont­gomery Soil Con­ser­va­tion Dis­trict to pro­tect the nat­ural resources within the Patux­ent Reser­voirs water­shed, which sup­ply a smaller por­tion of our pub­lic drink­ing water system.

Water Resources Element

Dur­ing the 2006 leg­isla­tive ses­sion, the Mary­land Gen­eral Assem­bly enacted House Bill 1141 Land Use – Local Gov­ern­ment Plan­ning. HB 1141 requires that local juris­dic­tions adopt a water resources ele­ment in their com­pre­hen­sive plans.

The Howard County Water Resources Ele­ment (WRE) is an amend­ment to Gen­eral Plan 2000 that adds Poli­cies and Actions intended to ensure that the County has ade­quate water resource capac­i­ties to meet future growth needs through 2030. In par­tic­u­lar, the WRE is to ensure a safe and ade­quate sup­ply of drink­ing water, and ade­quate land and water capac­ity for the treat­ment of waste water and stormwa­ter. The WRE must reflect the oppor­tu­ni­ties and lim­i­ta­tions pre­sented by local and regional water resources. It is intended to improve pro­tec­tion of land and water resources and to address water resource goals within the con­text of local and State smart growth policies.

Learn more about the WRE and how it relates to drink­ing water with the WRE Water and Waste­water Research Paper

What can I do to help pro­tect our water resources?
The WRE is, in part, intended to improve water qual­ity and habi­tat in our local streams, ponds, lakes and reser­voirs. This will in turn help improve water qual­ity and habi­tat in the Chesa­peake Bay. The major­ity of land in Howard County is pri­vately owned, so man­age­ment prac­tices at indi­vid­ual homes and busi­nesses are crit­i­cal to these efforts. The fol­low­ing links pro­vide more infor­ma­tion about local and regional water resources and ways for indi­vid­u­als and busi­nesses to help improve and pro­tect our water resources.

Learn more about your local and regional water resources:
Howard County Envi­ron­men­tal Plan­ning
Water Resources Ele­ment
NOAA Chesa­peake Bay Office

Dis­cover more ways to save water:
EPA Water Sense
Water Use It Wisely

Find ways to vol­un­teer your time help­ing our water­ways:
Howard County Con­ser­vancy
The Friends of Pat­ap­sco Val­ley Her­itage Green Way
Chesa­peake Bay Research Reserves
Alliance for the Chesa­peake Bay Cit­i­zen Mon­i­tor­ing Program

Apply for a grant to help your com­mu­nity pro­tect water resources:
Chesa­peake Bay Trust