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The Baltimore City Council investigates sewage floods
"Raw sewage is bad for human health - this is universal." -Chris Heaney, Associate Professor for Environmental Health and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University On Wednesday November 13th , I attended a hearing that the Baltimore City Council's Land Use Committee held for Resolution 19-0159, an investigation into sewage backups into buildings and the city's Expedited Reimbursement Program, set up to assist residents with the costs associated with sewer backups. The backup of sewage into Baltimore homes is a big problem, and only increasing with factors such a climate change causing more
Touring the Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant
On October 15th, I visited the Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant on a tour with Baltimore Heritage. Though the plant was originally constructed in 1940, the iteration that exists today was finished in 1985 and treats wastewater: 90% from households, and 10% from industrial sources. This wastewater comes from South and West Baltimore city, along with Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Howard Counties. The plant is 68 acres and has the capacity to process 63 million gallons of water a day and has a four stage treatment process, from preliminary, to primary, secondary, and tertiary. How does the
A Confusing Week for Baltimore's Plastic Bag Ban
On Monday October 7 at 1:00 pm, I attended the Baltimore City Council Judiciary Committee's work session on the Plastic Bag Reduction Bill ( #19-0401). It had to do with redefinition of a banned "plastic checkout bag" from a maximum thickness of 4 mils (thousandths of an inch) to a mazimum thickness of 2.25 mils. This would mean that distribution of plastic bags below 2.25 mils would be disallowed, and distribution of those between 2.25 and 4 mils to customers would be standard. In essence, a slightly thicker bag would be standard to encourage a false spirit of reusability. According to Cailey
MDE listens to stories about "A Geyser of Human Waste"
On September 30, 2019, the Maryland Department of Environment held a meeting on the growing concerns surrounding the effectiveness of the “Baltimore City Building Backup Expedited Reimbursement Pilot Program”. Albeit the name of the program is long, the issues that this program remedies are concise. In general, the program is meant to compensate for the cost of the flooding of sewage within the basements of Baltimore City residents. Due to increased rainfall experienced by the Baltimore community, the aging infrastructure of the sewage pipes become backed up, leading to sewage becoming
4,500+ Baltimore homes had sewage backups last year - but only 10 got assistance
For almost a year, our team has been knocking on doors, visiting community association, and speaking at community festivals in Baltimore City about a subject nobody really wants to talk about: sewage backing up into people's basements. According to 311 call records, this happens to more than 4,500 times in Baltimore City every year, and the results can be severe: thousands of dollars in financial damages, panic and disruption to daily life, exposure to dangerous pathogens, and long-term health risks from mold and mildew in damp, bacteria-infested walls. Read about the kinds of impacts this can