In a second breakneck day of undoing the previous board's decisions, the Carroll commissioners axed yesterday the proposed $16 million water treatment plant at Piney Run Reservoir in Sykesville, a project that had pitted county government against the state and many South Carroll residents.

The three commissioners voted unanimously to walk away from the plan, though about $2 million has been spent laying the groundwork for the project.

They also voted to delete the plant from the county's water and sewer master plan and add the construction of wells and an expansion of the Freedom water treatment plant at Liberty Reservoir to the document, which the state is reviewing.

"We want those changes sent to the state right away," said Commissioner Julia Walsh Gouge. "We will not mention Piney Run in the plan at all."

Dean L. Minnich and Perry L. Jones Jr. joined Gouge in voting to scrap the plant. The plant had been favored by two former commissioners.

The board also moved to overhaul the county ethics commission and pulled the plug on the former commissioners' plans to auction the former Hampstead Elementary School.

Killing the Piney Run plant was among the changes new board members had promised during the recent campaign.