A public works employee places a case of bottled water into a car in Baltimore in early September. City officials began distributing bottled water after harmful levels of E. coli bacteria was detected in the drinking water. Photo by Bryan Woolston/AP.

When it comes to what the government does, it doesn’t get more basic than providing water.

Local and state officials, who are trying to plan the future of the Baltimore area’s water supply, are proposing to create a task force to study the issue and report back to the Maryland General Assembly next January.

At a hearing Wednesday before the House Environment and Transportation Committee, no one spoke against setting up the task force. But some worried it could be a slippery slope towards Baltimore City’s water being privatized.

Del. Stephanie Smith, a Baltimore City Democrat who proposed the legislation, quickly dispelled that.

“So I want to say that on the record, this is not some type of backdoor effort to lead to that,” Smith said.

Mary Grant, the public water for all director of advocacy group Food and Water Watch, said protections need to be added to the task force legislation.

“Otherwise it could unintentionally open the door to privatization, rate hikes and shut offs and exclude the city’s majority Black population from key decision-making,” Grant told the committee.

David Wheaton, an Economic Justice Policy Fellow with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said access to clean and affordable water is a fundamental human right and that the task force legislation doesn’t go far enough to guarantee that.

“We are concerned that the bill as written will have disastrous effects on low income and Black residents of Baltimore and the wider region,” Wheaton said.

The water and wastewater system is owned by Baltimore City under both state and regional agreements. It provides service to 1.8 million residents in the city and Baltimore County, as well as portions of Howard, Harford, Carroll and Anne Arundel counties.

Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott and Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski testified on behalf of the legislation. Both noted that the legal agreements regarding the water supply were last updated in 1972, before either of them was born.

“We are at a pivotal moment for our region in how we need to look at this system to best address the needs through the utility,” Scott told the committee.

Read more (and listen) at WYPR.