From the Baltimore Sun:

Carroll County officials have asked the county’s Environmental Advisory Council to launch a water conservation effort and are working to form a water task force, two plans that grew out of a countywide water summit.

The conservation campaign should seek ways to recycle wastewater and promote low water-use fixtures and environmentally sensitive landscaping and gardening techniques, county officials said.

The effort comes as Westminster officials are hoping to resolve by the end of the month a water deficit that has shut down development in the county seat, Mayor Thomas K. Ferguson said.

Mount Airy officials are also considering a building moratorium or a water conservation ordinance that mandates conservation efforts for any new building permits approved. “We can’t tell people, ‘you have to save water,’ ” Mount Airy Mayor Frank Johnson said. “This isn’t legislating where people can only take two showers a day, but it is looking at some of the measures we want to put in place.”

People are going to have to start thinking about lawns…

County Planning Director Steven C. Horn said his department was working Friday to outline the areas of concern that such a commission should address.

One newer concept the conservation campaign could promote is landscaping with native grasses and perennial plants that require less watering, Slater said. In the past, he said, homeowner courses on environmentally sensitive yard care were offered in subdivisions throughout the county.

Encouraging residents to forgo a conventional grass lawn could also save water, Slater said, though that might not go over well with people.

“I’ve been trying to systematically eliminate my lawn for 25 years now,” Slater said.

The field of drought-resistant landscaping is a growing one. Smart landscapers are promoting designs as low-water consumption landscaping. This is slowly burbling to the surface for homeowners…