sewage

Baltimore's sewage system is in trouble.  Sanitary sewage outfalls allow untreated sewage to spill into our streams during rainstorms.  Overflowing pipes spill water into our streets, and even our basements.  And major capital improvements are needed at our wastewater treatment facilities and throughout the system for Baltimore to clean up our waterways that lead to the Inner Harbor and keep pollution out of our neighborhoods.

The City of Alexandria is dumping raw sewage into our waterways - and has been for more than 40 years. Alexandria is not only putting public health at risk, it is also breaking state and federal law. This uncontrolled toxic dumping is not only health hazard to city residents and visitors, but also multiple downstream communities, and undermines the rights of Virginians to drinkable, swimmable, and fishable water.

When Baltimore City’s sewer system was first installed in 1909, it was considered cutting edge technology. Now, after over a century of neglect, it is undersized and outdated, and has led to raw sewage flowing into the city’s waterways and flooding residents’ basements.

Every time it rains, the combined sewer systems of Washington D.C. and the City of Alexandria dump untreated sewage into the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers. Although the District has begun projects designed to prevent raw sewage from entering local waterways and rivers, such as holding tunnels, Alexandria recently missed an opportunity to adopt a modern Long Term Control Plan (LTCP) for its own aging sewer system.

One of my favorite places to ride my bike in Baltimore is the Jones Falls Trail between North Avenue and Druid Hill Park. The trail follows the last section of the Jones Falls before it flows underground in pipes underneath downtown on its way to the Inner Harbor, in a narrow stream valley below the traffic of I-83.