(12/1) Residents quickly took to Facebook to raise concerns over a proposed application by Lockland AG & Turf to apply for a permit to draw up to 576,000 gallons of water per day from Israel Creek to support their turf growing operations.
A permit is required for any activity that withdraws water from the Town’s surface and/or underground waters. An exemption to the permit requirement is allowed for agriculture uses of less then 10,000 gallons per day.
In a letter received by the News-Journal, Lockland stated that they were looking to draw a daily average of 139,500 gallons per day, with a peak usage during their busiest months of 576,000 gallons of water per day.
To put that number into perspective, the proposed peak usage by Lockland represents 88% of the maximum use of water by all the residents and businesses in Walkersville during a typical summer day.
In a Facebook post in response to concerns raised by residents over the impact of the amount of water proposed to be withdrawn, Lockland owner, Matthew Toms, stated that the business had been "drawing water from Israel Creek for years."
"After last year’s drought," Toms continued, "we thought it would be a good idea to have the ability to draw more water if needed."
Toms stated that "the permit was important to our farm so we can continue to grow a needed product locally." Toms did not indicate how much water the business had been drawing, or if it ever exceeded the legally allowed 10,000 gallons per day. Tom’s Facebook post however failed to explain that assuming that the current and previous year’s draw from the creek were within the permit exemption limit of 10,000 gallons per day, what conditions changed that led to the need for an increase in average daily draw by 13.9 fold, and a maximum daily limit of over 57 fold.
Toms went on to claim that the proposed permitted water draw would "amount to less then 1 percent of the daily flow of the creek," and "any reduction in flow to the creek will be insignificant."
Based upon Toms’ permit request however, one percent would imply that the Creek’s daily flow rate is approximately 14 million gallons per day.
To put Toms’ 14 million gallons a day figure into perspective, the flow rate of the full Monocacy River at Bridgeport, where the state has a flow rate measuring station, is just 11 million gallons per day, while the flow for the Monocacy River at the state’s Monocacy Boulevard measuring station is 73 million gallons per day.
When contacted, the County was unable to confirm Toms’ estimate that he would be drawing less than 1% of the water in Israel Creek. A representative of the County’s Division of Energy and Environment said they had no idea what the water flow rate was in the Israel Creek, as they had no flow monitoring stations on the creek, and that deterring water flows in waterways fell under the authority of the Maryland Department of the Environment.
A subsequent review of the proposed permit and its basis with management of the Maryland Department of the Environment’s Source Protection and Appropriation Division was – well – insightful.
The MDE representative stated that the Division’s initial decision to move forward with ‘considering’ the permit was based upon the flow rates reported by the State’s water measuring station "on the creek" located at Monocacy Blvd.
When it was pointed out that the Monocacy Blvd monitoring station was measuring the flow rate of the Monocacy River, not Israel Creek, the representative, upon confirming that fact, said: "oh my, this changes everything."
"Without a flow measuring system, we don’t have a basis for determining how much water flows in Israel Creek, so we have no way of knowing if the applicant will be drawing more than one percent of the water in the creek, a key condition for the approval of the permit."
The representative said that the MDE usually just accepts, as fact, what is submitted in permit applications by applicants and does not do any research into the veracity of information in the applications, or their potential adverse impact on the environment unless it is bought to their attention by a member of the public.
In reply to questions about the impact of drawing up to an average of 139,000 gallons of water per day from Israel Creek during dry times when the creek would be running at its lowest level, the representative pointed out that the 139,000 could in fact, be lower limit, "The applicant could pulled much more water than that on any given day or period based upon the inclusion of the word ‘average’ in the permit and how the state determines what ‘average use’ was."
"Average use," the representative said, "is determined by how many gallons of water is pulled out over the year, then that total is divided by 365." Based upon that, Lochland Turf can pull a total of 50,917,500 gallons of water out of Israel Creek over the year under the terms of the permit, "and can pull all that water out of the creek over a period of 3 months, if they want, as long as they do not exceed the daily allowable limit of 576,000 gallons, and pull no water the remaining 9 months of the year."
The potential drawing of tens of millions of gallons of water from Israel Creek drew sharp rebukes from residents when the mandatory notification letter, submitted by Lockland to adjoining landowners, as well as this paper, was posted on Facebook.
Many expressed concern that Lockland would be attempting to draw the maximum amount permitted during the driest months of the year, the very time Israel Creek "barely flows at all," and when trees and animals need it the most, said one resident.
Others expressed concern that if the drawing of that much water from the Creek did not cause it to dry up all together, the flow would be so slow that it would become little more then stagnant pools of water that would serve a breeding grounds of mosquitoes throughout the summer, making life outdoor intolerable for residents in the Walkersville developments that boarder the Creek.
"This is a HUGE amount of water per day! This sort of thing usually doesn’t work out well for the river & stream ecosystems and surrounding lands." Another posted "How can a business drain water from the creek in our community to use solely to advance their business? I hope this doesn’t go through; the kids love that creek! I think these builders and businesses need to stop ruining Mother Nature and work with the environment, not constantly draw from it!"
Another summed up their feelings with a simple: "this is insane."
Israel Creek’s watershed flows north to south, starting in the Johnsville area of Carroll County. The Creek flows through Woodsboro and forms the eastern boundary of Walkersville and empties into the Monocacy River, south of Route 26. The Creek was barely flowing at all, as it ran under the Crum Road Bridge at the time of the publishing of this edition of the paper.
According to the Maryland Department of the Environment, "a permit is required in order to conserve, protect, and use water resources of the State in the best interests of the people of Maryland, it is necessary to control the appropriation or use of surface and underground waters."
The State is looking for public input on Lockland’s water permit application, and depending upon the input it receives, will hold a public meeting to determine if the permit should be issued, or if issued, limit the amount of water that can be drawn.
Those wishing for a public meeting on the proposed permit can do so by calling 410-537-3590 or by writing the Maryland Water Supply Program, Source Protection and Appropriations Division, 1800 Washington St. Baltimore, Md. 21230.
Editor’s Note: Lockland Ag & Turf failed to return calls from this paper requesting input on this story.
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