Sewer Overflows Reported

Tuesday Aug 23rd, 2016

Green banner with DPW logo and text "Department of Public Works Press Release"

The Baltimore City Department of Public Works is investigating the cause of an ongoing sanitary sewer overflow in the 1500 block of North Chapel Street. The overflow, discovered Aug. 18, 2016, is running intermittently but has exceeded 10,000 gallons of sewer water since then. The spillage has not surfaced onto the street or sidewalks.

A solution to the overflow will be determined once the cause is identified.

Also, DPW has confirmed that an overflow on Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016, released 21,000 gallons of rainwater-diluted sewage into the Jones Falls. This was from an underground, structured overflow at Charles & Lanvale streets after a downpour that morning.

Structured outfalls were designed into the system more than 100 years ago to provide such releases when the sewers became inundated with rainwater.

The Baltimore City Health Department and the Maryland Department of the Environment were notified of the releases.

The public is reminded to avoid contact with urban waterways due to the risk of pollution. For more information about health concerns as a result of sewer overflows please go to http://health.baltimorecity.gov/sanitary-sewer-overflows-sso.

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