DPW says one sewage release during Tuesday’s storm
Stormwater, not sewage, flowed from the Port Covington pipe, DPW says
Above: More than 2 million gallons of sewage-mixed-with-rainwater were released at this spot, 1901 Falls Road, on Friday. (Fern Shen)
The Department of Public Works today reported that there was only one sewer overflow exceeding 10,000 gallons during Tuesday’s storm.
Sanitary Sewer Overflow No. 67, at 1900 Falls Road, released 15,000 gallons of sewage into the Jones Falls during the storm, DPW spokesman Jeffrey Raymond said.
The agency had suspected a second waste overflow exceeding 10,000 gallons, which requires public disclosure, occurred at SSO No. 72 in the 400 block of East Preston Street.
“The finalized date indicated that there may have been a brief inflow of stormwater from the storm system into the sanitary sewer,” Raymond said.
As to the foul-smelling liquid that a Brew reader photographed coming out of a pipe at Port Covington during Tuesday’s storm, Raymond said the discharge was not from a structured sewage pipe because the city has no pipes in the South Baltimore drainage area. Instead, the brown liquid came from a stormwater pipe.
Ending sewage overflows, which are a major cause of pollution in the harbor, was originally set to be accomplished in 2009 under a 2002 consent decree.
Earlier this month, the city renegotiated the agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Maryland Department of the Environment to extend the deadline for terminating the releases to July 1, 2022.
The new agreement, however, requires DPW to improve its system of notifying the public and other government bodies of potentially hazardous sewage spills.