3080 ARTICLE 14.

water works, or to the contractor or contractors for such construction
as shall be due from time to time or earned by the contractor in the prose-
cution of said works, and also from time to time to pass orders for the
payment for property purchased or condemned and for material furnished
in pursuance of this Act; and may in their discretion employ a competent
hydrographical engineer to superintend "the construction of said works.

1914, ch. 836, sec. 81R.

172. The Commissioners of Ellicott City are hereby empowered to
construct and erect a water works for supplying said City with water,
and to contract for the purchase in fee simple or lease for a term of years,
renewable at their pleasure, any land, real estate, springs, brooks, water
courses, streams, wells, etc., and to use and occupy forever, or for a term
of years, any land, real estate, springs, brooks, water courses, streams or
wells which may be deemed necessary for the purpose of supplying and
furnishing said city with water; and they are hereby provided and in-
vested with all the rights and powers necessary for the purpose of in-
ducting water into said City. If, for any cause, the Commissioners of
Ellicott City shall be unable to agree with any owner or owners of any
real estate, land, wells, springs, brooks, streams or water courses or any
other material which partakes of real estate, or for any right-of-way which
they may find necessary for conducting said water into and in said City,
or if any owner is unable, from some disability or incapacity, to contract
with said Commissioners of Ellicott City, or absent out of the County or
unknown, the said Commissioners of Ellicott City are hereby clothed with
the power of condemnation under the right of eminent domain as provided
for in the public general laws of this State as fully as if said public gen-
eral laws had been herein incorporated, and their manner of procedure
for the purposes of this Act shall in all particulars be the same as is pro-
vided by the said public general laws of Maryland. The said Commis-
sioners of Ellicott City shall have the power of fixing a schedule of rates
for furnishing water to private residences and to provide for the collec-
tion of said water rents as other taxes are collected, and the income there-
of shall be applied, first, for the maintenance of said water works, and
afterwards for the payment of interest accrued on said bonds, and then
to the sinking fund to meet the bonds as they severally fall due.

1914, ch. 836, sec. 81S.

173. The title to said water works and all of the lands, estates, water
courses, conduits, pipes, machinery and other parts thereof shall, when
completed and acquired, invest in the Commissioners of Ellicott City;
and any person, who shall knowingly and wilfully pollute any spring,
stream, brook, water course, reservoir or stand pipe in connection with the
water works so to be constructed, by throwing any impure or deleterious
substance or thing into the same, or by swimming, bathing or washing
themselves, or by washing clothes or any other thing therein, or by com-
mitting any nuisance in or near the sources of supply or the reservoir