Baltimore City signed a consent decree with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) that required the city to repair its sewer system and “eliminate all” overflows and spills by January 1, 2016, but has only finished about half of the repair work required by the consent decree. Report reveals that Baltimore continues to intentionally pipe tens of millions of gallons of raw sewage mixed with rain water into the Inner Harbor’s main tributary years after federal authorities ordered the city to stop this pollution, leading to property damage for homeowners, high levels of fecal bacteria in the city’s waterways. Two sewage system relief pipes on the Jones Falls dumped about 335 million gallons into the waterway in 119 incidents over the last five years, with about 97 percent of these overflows not reported to the public as required by state law, according to an analysis of city and state records. Explore the interactive map.
