A Voluntary Interagency Agreement to Protect Sources of Drinking Water for Metropolitan Baltimore Papers included in Watershed 96 proceedings reflect the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily represent official positions of the Environmental Protection Agency. A Voluntary Interagency Agreement to Protect Sources of Drinking Water for Metropolitan Baltimore Jack Anderson, Manager, Special Projects Baltimore Metropolitan Council, Baltimore, MD Rowland Agbede Maryland Department of Agriculture, Annapolis, MD Patricia Bernhardt Harford County Department of Planning and Zoning, Bel Air, MD Richard Dixon, P.E. Anne Arundel County Department of Public Works, Glen Burnie, MD James Ensor Baltimore County Soil Conservation District, Cockeysville, MD William Parrish, Jr . Maryland Department of the Environment, Baltimore, MD Charles Null Carroll Soil Conservation District, Westminster, MD Susan Overstreet Howard County Department of Planning and Zoning, Ellicott City, MD Catherine Rappe Carroll County Bureau of Water Resource Management, Westminster, MD Robert Ryan Baltimore County Department.
Few resources are as important as our sources of drinking water.
The Baltimore Region has been fortunate in having an excellent metropolitan water supply system. Protection of our source of drinking water is vital to the future of the Baltimore region. The Reservoir Watershed Protection Program is a voluntary, interagency partnership established by the 1984 Watershed Management Agreement. The purpose of the Program is to improve the quality of water feeding into the reservoirs. This paper traces the history of this program, highlights its accomplishments and future challenges, and offers a few tips for other communities considering voluntary reservoir watershed management programs.