60 Yrs. In The Making, Baltimore Co. Reservoir Project Breaks Ground
BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. (WJZ)—Progress moves at its own pace, but 60 years? That's how long plans have been on the books in Baltimore County for a new reservoir.
Alex DeMetrick reports on the project that's finally about to break ground.
Baltimore's reservoirs, pipelines and treatment, make much of the metro area as possible. The system is still a work in progress and a long planned change is coming to this land Fullerton in Baltimore County.
"When the engineers of the past laid out the entire Baltimore metropolitan water system, they identified that areas as a potential site for water storage," said Steve Walsh, of the Baltimore County Bureau of Engineering.
Dwight Eisenhower was in the White House when the county acquired the property to do just that. But in the past 60 years, the only construction was this sign, with simple sketches of the three large domed tanks that will hold 62 million gallons of treated drinking water.
That will replace water currently kept at Druid Hill Park, until new covered reservoirs are built here.
Since 9/11, treated water must be kept under cover, like this holding facility in Towson. The covered tanks in Fullerton will be larger and take three years to build.
"Depending on where you're located around the site, you may see nothing or you may see part of the tanks," said Walsh.
When the project is completed, it will cap planning that began almost a century ago.
"Tremendous foresight. Laying out a plan that 75-years later we're putting the final pieces in place," said Walsh.
In this field in Fullerton, the newest link to planners who are gone, but whose legacy flows on.
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