§ 25-1 General authority.

The Mayor and City Council of Baltimore is hereby authorized and empowered

to convert the entire valley or basin of the Gunpowder River, in Baltimore County, and its dependencies, or so much thereof as may be necessary for the purposes of this subheading, from the present dam, at the lower end of Loch Raven, in said county, to the upper end of the village of Phoenix, in said county, or to such point above said village as may be necessary or proper for the purposes of this subheading, into a reservoir or basin for augmenting and improving the municipal water supply of the City of Baltimore;

to create, establish and maintain said reservoir or lake and its appurtenances, and to conduct the waters of said reservoir or lake, along such route, or routes, and in such manner, and by such instrumentalities and means, as may be necessary or proper for the purposes of this subheading, including such works, and their appurtenances at Lake Roland, and at or near Baltimore City, as may be necessary or proper for the purposes of this subheading, to the City of Baltimore and its environs for the use of said City, and of its inhabitants, and of such other persons as may now or hereafter be lawfully furnished with water by said City

to utilize, appropriate, divert, deflect, straighten, riprap, or otherwise modify or control, for the purposes of this subheading, all springs, brooks, creeks, rivulets, rivers or other water courses, tributary (or capable of being rendered tributary) to, or obstructive of, the purposes of this subheading;

to create, establish, set apart and maintain, regulate and protect, afforest or otherwise improve water sheds and reservations along, and to such full extent of adjacency as may be necessary for the purposes of this subheading, adjacent to the waters of said reservoir or lake, for securing a pure, copious and constant flow of water into said reservoir or lake

to create, establish and maintain, construct, erect, lay, lay out and employ all such dams, walls, bulkheads, dykes, inlets, waste ways, water gates, bridges, tunnels, aqueducts, waterways, conduits, culverts, drains, mains, pipes, settling or other reservoirs, lakes, basins or ponds, power houses, pump houses or other buildings, structures or erections, roads, ways, approaches, appurtenances, agencies, instrumentalities or means, as may be necessary or proper, for the purposes of this subheading, including all instrumentalities or means for diverting, deflecting, disposing of, controlling, collecting, confining, impounding, storing, protecting, clarifying, purifying, transmitting or distributing, or otherwise handling, water that may be necessary or proper for the purpose of promoting or securing the full working efficiency and utility of said reservoir, or lake for the objects for which it is intended by this subheading;

to incorporate with said reservoir or lake and its appurtenances, for the purposes of this subheading, all, or any part, or parts of Loch Raven and its appurtenances or environs, or all or any part, or parts, of Lake Roland and its appurtenances or environs

to utilize, extend, enlarge, reinforce, adapt, reconstruct, alter, re-equip or repair, for the purposes of this subheading, or for other purposes affecting the municipal water supply of Baltimore City, all, or any part, or parts, of the present water system of Baltimore City and its appurtenances;

to appoint or employ such professional or technical advisers and experts and such agents, assistants, clerks, employees, including all members of the police service hereinafter mentioned, and laborers, skilled or unskilled, of all kinds, as it may deem requisite for the due and proper execution of this subheading, and to fix their respective compensations, and to remove and discharge them at its pleasure (except such highly trained, experienced or skilled individuals as it may appoint or employ upon special terms for definite and fixed periods of time) and to exact from them such indemnity bonds for the proper performance of their respective duties as it may deem proper;

to purchase, hire or otherwise lawfully obtain the use of all such machinery, apparatus, tools, implements, appliances, supplies, materials and working agencies as it may need for the purposes of this subheading;

to make and enter into any and all contracts, agreements or stipulations germane to the scope of its powers under this subheading;

to make all such preliminary surveys and investigations, and to do all such preliminary work under this subheading as it may be advised shall be necessary or proper for the purposes of this subheading;

to acquire by gift, purchase, arbitration, exchange, lease, whatever the duration of the lease, or other like methods of acquisition, or by condemnation, any land or property, public, quasi-public, or private, situated wholly or partly in Baltimore County or in Baltimore City, or situated wholly or partly in Anne Arundel County or in any other county of this State, or any interest, franchise, easement, right of privilege therein, which may be required for any of the purposes of this subheading, including springs, brooks, creeks, rivulets, rivers or other water courses, mills, factories, and industrial plants of every description and their appurtenances, workshops, stores, farm buildings, structures, and erections, churches, graveyards, schoolhouses, or other school property, dwelling houses, outhouses, bridges, streets, alleys, roads and ways, and all other buildings, structures, erections, or improvements of every description, on, over, or under, land, or other property, or any interest, franchise, easement, right or privilege therein, and in like manner to acquire any corporate franchises or any other thing including earth, timber, stone, or other materials, or places of temporary or permanent deposit for excavated material or other like facilities for effectuating the objects of this subheading, of any sort that may be required for the purposes of this subheading; and

generally to do and perform all and every such acts or things which, by anything short of a palpably forced construction, could be held to be auxiliary or conducive to the proper exercise of any, or all, of the powers by this subheading conferred upon the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, or to the effective accomplishment of the leading purpose of this subheading, namely, the collection, accumulation and maintenance of an ample supply of water in said main reservoir or lake, and its transmission and distribution in as abundant, clear, pure, healthful, convenient and satisfactory a character as possible to the City of Baltimore, and its inhabitants, and such other persons as may now or hereafter be lawfully supplied with water by the City of Baltimore for its and their uses.

The title acquired by condemnation, or otherwise, by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, under this subheading, for the purposes thereof, shall, as to land, or other property, or things required for said main reservoir or lake, or for subsidiary reservoirs, lakes, ponds or basins, or for said watersheds or reserves, or for surface buildings, erections, structures, works or things of a permanent character, involving the idea of exclusive use and occupation by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, be in fee simple but may, as to land, or other property, or things, required for other purposes under this subheading, be in fee simple, or limited to some lesser quantum of interest, in point of estate, or duration, accordingly as the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore may determine.