Explosion at Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant injures two
In 2022, a Maryland Department of the Environment inspection noted the risk of fire and explosion at the South Baltimore facility
Above: First responders transport a worker injured at the Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant in far South Baltimore. (WBAL-TV)
Two people were injured in an explosion at the Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant today. First responders arrived at the city-owned facility after receiving calls shortly after 1:00 p.m. for reports of an explosion around the 3500 block of Asiatic Ave.
The two people injured in the explosion were contractors working at the plant, not city employees, said Stancil McNair, president of AFSCME Local 44, which represents city water and wastewater employees as well sanitation workers.
“I heard they touched something wrong, and it just went off,” McNair told The Brew. “Burned their gloves so bad the gloves stuck to their hands.”
The two injured people were taken to a hospital and their current conditions are not known.
A representative of the Baltimore Department of Public Works (DPW), which operates the plant, said the agency would comment after receiving more information regarding the incident.
The Brew reached out to the Maryland Department of Energy (MDE) for comment as well.
The Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant in far South Baltimore. (Mark Reutter)
Troubled History
In 2022, an MDE inspection at the Patapsco facility highlighted the potential for fire and explosions due to dangerously high levels of chemicals in the facility’s backed-up sewage sludge, The Brew then reported.
Twice in recent years, explosions have rocked the second and larger sewage treatment plant that DPW operates in Baltimore, the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant in Baltimore County.
A March 15, 2023 explosion where sewage sludge is dried and processed into fertilizer ripped a hole in the side of the structure. Employees escaped without injury but the building was badly damaged.
The same facility, operated at Back River by contractor Synagro Technologies, experienced a second explosion last September. The company has said that contamination of flammable hydrocarbons in Back River’s waste endangered its industrial dryers.
The fires and explosions at the Synagro operation are one of a multitude of issues at the city’s sewage treatment plants. The discovery that millions of gallons of improperly treated sewage were being released into the Patapsco River led Blue Water Baltimore and the Chesapeake Legal Alliance to file a landmark suit in 2021 over illegal discharges from both plants.
Since 2023, Baltimore City has been in a legal agreement to improve both facilities, and Patapsco received $18 million in January to ensure equipment repairs and improvement, according to a statement from MDE.
“These infrastructure improvements are a big step forward for clean water in Maryland,” said Serena Mcllwain, MDE secretary, in the press release.
Among other requirements in the legal agreement, both sites must have a third-party overseeing compliance and install warning signs and light where waste is discharged.
“Conditions at these plants were dire for residents, employees, and for the environment,” Sydnee Wilson Ruff, executive director of Blue Water Baltimore said in 2023 when announcing the agreement.
“Now we look forward to continuing our longstanding partnership with Baltimore City leaders to improve the health, safety, and welfare of Baltimore residents and our shared environment,” Ruff said at the time.