§ 25-31 General authority.

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

to convert the entire valley or basin of the Patapsco River in Baltimore County, Carroll County and Howard County, and its dependencies, and/or the entire valley or basin of the Little Gunpowder River in Baltimore County and Howard County, and its dependencies, or so much of each and all of said valleys or basins as may be necessary and proper for the purposes of this subheading, into reservoirs or lakes for augmenting, enlarging and improving the municipal water supply of the City of Baltimore;

to create, establish and maintain said reservoirs or lakes and their appurtenances, and to conduct the waters of said reservoirs or lakes 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 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 reservoirs or lakes, for securing a pure, copious and constant flow of water into said reservoirs or lakes;

to create, establish and maintain, construct, erect, lay, lay out and employ all such dams, walls, bulkheads, dikes, 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 reservoirs or lakes for the objects for which they are intended by this subheading;

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 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 by other similar methods of acquisition, or by condemnation, any land or property, public, quasi-public or private, situated wholly or partly in Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Howard County, Carroll County, Harford County, Anne Arundel County, and/or in any other county of this State, or any interest, franchise, easement, right or 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, school houses 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 reservoirs or lakes, 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 reservoirs or lakes, or for said water sheds or reservoirs, 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.