Voluntary water ban proposed

Mayor asks residents to stop washing cars, watering lawns due to dry spell

Residents would be asked to stop activities such as washing cars or watering lawns for a certain period of time. The mayor said a press release with additional details would likely come Tuesday or Wednesday, but City Hall issued no official notice as of The Gazette’s press time.

A 2002 agreement between the city and the Maryland Department of the Environment, limits water withdrawal from streams and rivers so enough water remains to support life.

The agreement stipulates that the city’s withdrawal from the Monocacy River cannot cause the rate of flow at the Jug Bridge stream gauge to drop below 50 cubic feet per second.

Holtzinger said when this occurs, the city needs to request additional water from Frederick County to meet demand.

The mayor said that flow of the Monocacy River is ‘‘getting to a critical level.”

According to the latest water quality report for the city, average daily production from four main sources reached 6 million gallons per day last year. The Monocacy River contributed 26.6 percent of that water, according to the report.

Richard Hitchens, a hydrologist for the National Weather Service office in Sterling, Va., said the region that includes Frederick is 7.8 inches of rainfall below normal levels for the year. ‘‘It has been dry and when there have been thunderstorms, it has been hit or miss,” he said.

Making an impact in that deficiency, he said, would take a good amount of precipitation.

‘‘This time of year ... you would need something tropical and nothing like that is on the horizon,” Hitchens said. ‘‘... If we don’t get hit [with rain] in the next day or so, it looks to be dry for a while.”

Holtzinger pointed out the greater regularity of dry spells in Frederick in 1999, 2002 and near-drought conditions now as reason for concern.

‘‘The goal is not to have our water system so stressed, so we need to be planning for these events and not gambling,” he said. ‘‘The fact is these dry spells are happening on a more frequent basis ... and we need to protect the public safety, health and welfare of residents.”

Holtzinger said the city would review the impact of the voluntary ban before considering an outright ban on water use.

‘‘If this persists, we may have to go to the next level,” he said.