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The Sun was right to call for greater public transparency about rail traffic through the Howard Street Tunnel, as the public is poised to provide even larger subsidies to renovate it (“ CSX back on track,” December 17, 2018). Our region’s railroads are critical to the health, safety, and economic development of Baltimore: a huge volume of commodities travel quickly and efficiently by rail, but bottlenecks like the Howard Street Tunnel restrict that flow. And, more importantly to Baltimore’s neighborhoods, aging infrastructure can create the risk of derailment. Already in Baltimore, we’ve seen

Pollution from septic systems is an ongoing issue in local Maryland streams and rivers, the Chesapeake Bay, and in wells. Last summer, we participated in a summer working group to identify the problems and possible solutions for moving forward. HB1765 is a result of collaboration among stakeholders and has passed the House of Delegates. This bill has passed both the House and Senate!

The Problem:

There are two types of pollution associated with septic systems: nitrogen and bacteria.

Nitrogen is a nutrient pollutant - a fertilizer for plants that can cause algae blooms and deadzones in our

Two years ago, as Baltimore City renegotiated its agreement with the EPA to repair faults and design flaws in its sewage system, residents spoke out and organized because their neighborhoods had a chronic sewage problem: at times the system designed to collect and pipe sewage to treatment plants would fail, causing raw sewage to overflow into their homes. As a result of these protests and comments submitted by advocacy groups, the final consent decree was revised to include requirements that Baltimore develop programs for basement backups caused by problems in city-owned infrastructure. Under