Environmental Justice in Maryland

Yesterday the city of Baltimore experienced a severe wet weather event that resulted in flood warnings throughout the DMV area, coupled with a water main break downtown. While the water main break is responsible for the day’s increase in train delays and a strong flow of murky brown water into the inner harbor near Howard and Pratt, an infrastructure failure may not be necessary for the same problem to occur in the near future.

As environmental awareness has continued to increase, the debate of banning distribution of plastic bags has been brought to the table. Implementing policy regarding this issue in Baltimore City would lead to numerous benefits for its residents, its economy, and its surrounding ecosystems. A plastic bag ban in Baltimore City may reap a large positive economic impact by decreasing the demand for disposable bags and increasing the demand for reusable bags.

This morning, the Baltimore City Council's Judiciary and Legislative Investigations Committee held a public hearing on Resolution "for the purpose of inviting the Director of the Department of Public Works, the Head of the Bureau of Solid Waste, the Director of the Office of Sustainability, the Coordinator of the Office of Sustainability, and the City Arborist to update the City Council on the City’s progress toward creating a municipal composting program, to provide a fiscal impact statement on creating the program, and to estimate a time line for Citywide implementation of municipal compo