If the powers that be could somehow start over and create a Baltimore region from scratch, the design probably wouldn't call for the city to be the proprietor of the water system and leave the counties as customers. Like transit, highways, solid waste disposal and other public infrastructure, it probably ought to be a shared responsibility (and shared financial burden).
Yet the resolution offered by Baltimore County Councilman Kevin Kamenetz and approved by the council earlier this month calling on the county to study a regional management system raises hackles. If nothing else, it reflects the widespread view — at least in Towson — that most anything run by the county would be more effective than a city-based alternative.
Why the sudden interest in a regional water authority? No doubt council members are feeling the heat over a number of high-profile water main breaks this year from Owings Mills to Dundalk. Yet in case after case, the culprit is generally the aging infrastructure itself: pipes that have outlived their time and have not been replaced.
Counties already have a big say over when and where water lines serving their communities are replaced. That includes Baltimore County, which each year awards contracts for replacing or relining water lines within its borders.
City public works officials point out that Baltimore's tap water is generally rated high and that emergency repairs — which are the sole responsibility of the city — are not regarded as a problem. Customer complaints are mostly about the frequency and severity of the breaks, and that is primarily a function of aging underground pipes.
Yet that is exactly why a regional authority makes sense. Not because the city is necessarily an incompetent manager but because it is not a deep-pocketed one. The region is going to have to find a way to pay for $2 billion or more in improvements beyond the customary annual increases in water bills that are already set to rise 9-10 percent this year.
If Mr. Kamenetz, a Democratic candidate for Baltimore County executive, is serious about the issue he'll advocate for this investment, too. Voters need to understand that this is not just about who gets a say over water but who will have to pay.
The future of Baltimore's water system has long been a complex and politically touchy issue with hundreds of city jobs at stake and not something that generally lends itself to the sound-bites of political campaigns. It's curious that Mr. Kamenetz has taken up the issue because the real solution will involve sacrifice from county taxpayers, not the kind of thing that usually gets emphasized during an election. Anne Arundel, Howard and Carroll counties have a stake in this debate as well.
Rather than produce some self-serving county report on the matter, what's needed is a much more thorough and independent study — endorsed by all parties and perhaps the state legislature — that not only investigates alternative management structures but identifies the system's needs, their cost and the means to finance them.
The Baltimore region would probably be better off with an authority like the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission. But getting there is not easy task, and while the end result is likely to be a more reliable system, it will inevitably lead to higher water rates as well.