Health Risks of Baltimore Sewage Pollution Adds Urgency to Sewer Repairs

Photo Credit: Blue Water Baltimore

Baltimore residents waited over a decade for the city government to repair and upgrade the sewer system. Now, the city is asking for a 13-year extension to uphold a legal agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to abide by the Clean Water Act. In the meantime, the crumbling infrastructure allows millions of gallons of contaminated sewage water to flush into the Inner Harbor. Not to mention more than a dozen backups in homes occur each day—a serious risk to health.

While the City warns of “potential contaminants,” a monitoring project called Baltimore Water Harbor Alert shares more cringe-inducing details, including measures of Enterococcus fecal bacteria in various waterways. Detected at certain levels, Enterococcus fecal bacteria reflects the presence of microorganism that harm human health, such as Staphylococcus, Hepatitis A, and West Nile Virus. Contact with the contaminated water may cause gastrointestinal disorders and skin and sinus infections, explains the advocacy group Blue Water Baltimore, who runs the monitoring project in partnership with Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper.

In 2002, the City was originally tasked with eliminating all overflows that allow raw sewage to pollute Baltimore’s waters by 2015. But they failed to complete the full list of sewer pipe repairs and system upgrades, including major changes to the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant by 2021 to clear away a 10-mile long underground back-up of sewage. The new proposal, now under review by the EPA and Maryland Department of the Environment, extends the work until 2030. The update earmarks $2 million to cover back-ups, providing up to $2,500 in clean-up costs per resident. Yet there is still no accountability for health consequences.

The City should revise the proposal to reflect the urgency of protecting the health of its residents. The deadline should be updated to no later than 2022. Indeed, any number of years is too long to continue living with disease-causing bacteria running rampant in Baltimore’s waterways.