Pamela Rigaux
News-Post Staff

(2/26) All the water in the northern Monocacy Watershed on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line in Maryland and Pennsylvania is connected, but the way it is regulated depends on whether it's in Adams County or Frederick County.

In a forum to discuss the watershed Saturday, community leaders from both states said the best way to conserve and protect water resources is to work together. To do that, local governments will need to form alliances, according to those in who attended.

"Local decisions are typically left to the county," Tim McGrath, a representative from Sen. Paul Sarbanes' office said.

But he agreed with Emmitsburg Commissioner Bill O'Neil Jr. that it would be possible to regulate issues across states through an agreement.

Under the Constitution, states have the right to make a compact with another state with the consent of Congress, he said.

Pat Naugle, director of the Watershed Alliance of Adams County, pointed out a reason Frederick County should worry about the quality of water in the watershed.

In Pennsylvania, the state government regulates effluent, the water discharged from toilets, which ultimately winds up in streams, he said.

"It all goes downhill," Mr. Naugle said. "What you're doing down here doesn't affect us as much as what we're doing up here."

Emmitsburg Commissioner Glenn Blanchard called for enhanced communication across state lines.

"Hurricane Katrina, in some ways, was a manmade disaster," he said. "What I don't want to see is for this to be a manmade disaster."

Anyone living in Emmitsburg has seen the creeks flood, more often partly as a result of development in town and across the Pennsylvania line, Mr. Blanchard said.

"If we start building huge developments, what's going to happen?" he asked.

Elizabeth Prongas, chairwoman of the New Forest Society, which coordinated the forum at the Incarnation United Church of Christ on West Main Street, said residents in northern Frederick County know how critical it is to protect the watershed.

"All the watersheds in the area are connected," Mr. Naugle said. "The confluence of them starts at the Monocacy River and Frederick's flows into the Monocacy."

By the end of the two-hour discussion, the group hadn't formed any concrete conclusions about ways to protect the watershed. But the 40 residents, local and state leaders who showed up for the first forum agreed it would be good to organize another one.