Last open-air water reservoirs in Baltimore covered

Dillon Mullan, Baltimore Sun
Updated ·2 min read

The last open-air water reservoirs in Baltimore have been covered.

The Baltimore City Department of Public Works said Thursday that it completed projects at Lake Ashburton and Druid Lake to move previously unprotected drinking water into underground tanks as required by federal law. Previously the treated water was stored in open air reservoirs, exposed to the elements and microscopic dangers.

“The Ashburton and Druid Lake reservoirs are an integral part of Baltimore’s water system,” Public Works Interim Director Richard J. Luna said in a news release. “The successful completion of these underground tank projects, which have been in the works for nearly six years, adds a higher level of protection to the Baltimore region’s water supply.”

Related Articles

In September, the illness-inducing parasite cryptosporidium was detected in water from that Druid Lake Reservoir, prompting state officials to issue a boiled water advisory.

Weekly tests of the Druid Lake drinking water since the discovery of the chlorine-resistant parasite all returned negative, the department said in a news release. Water from Druid Lake Reservoir reaches an area that stretches northwest from Elkridge in Howard County toward Arbutus, cuts through the middle of Baltimore City and includes a large section of Baltimore County north of the city in Parkville, Towson and Cockeysville.

Federal regulations under the Safe Drinking Water Act require finished drinking water to be covered or receive additional treatment, and the city started construction on Druid Lake in 2017 and on Lake Ashburton in 2018.

In May, the EPA ordered Baltimore to finish Ashburton by Nov. 30 and Druid Lake by Dec. 30. Last month, the federal Environmental Protect Agency approved pushing back Ashburton’s deadline a couple of weeks.

The Ashburton tanks became operational Dec. 7, and the Druid Lake tank became operational Thursday. Now that the tanks are covered, testing is no longer required, the department said.

The remaining site work for both locations, including park amenities, is scheduled for completion next summer.

The city spent about $140 million on the Druid Lake tank project alone.

The EPA has said Lake Ashburton and Druid Lake were believed to be the last two uncovered drinking water reservoirs in its Region 3, which includes Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.

When the EPA regulation came into effect in 2006, Baltimore had five uncovered reservoirs holding treated water. The Towson Finished Water Reservoir came into compliance in 2013, the reservoir at Montebello Filtration Plant II in 2014 and the Guilford Reservoir in 2019, according to the EPA order.