It’s the holiday season, meaning many folks are hunting down gifts for their loved ones! Here at Blue Water Baltimore, we encourage everyone to be thoughtful when picking out presents; this means shopping locally, minimizing packaging and wrapping waste and choosing gifts that last. We’ve gathered a list of a few Blue Water Baltimore favorites…
THE ISSUE: The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) has proposed a series of changes to the municipal separated stormwater sewer system (MS4) permits that dictate how much stormwater pollution local jurisdictions can allow, and what they are required to do to offset it. Urban and suburban stormwater runoff is untreated – it kills fish,…
Thank you for volunteering to plant trees with us! We are so excited to create a cleaner, greener Baltimore together. In an effort to reduce in-person gatherings and limit demonstrations, please carefully read these how-to-plant tips before attending our events. The most important steps are highlighted in bold. We ask that you read the whole…
As our 10th birthday celebration continues, we’re shining a spotlight on one of our allies in the fight for clean water, the Waterway Pollution Investigation Team in the Baltimore City Department of Public Works. This dedicated group of people receives your reports, follows up on them, and hunts down the source of the pollution in…
ENVISIONING A STRONGER CITY Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) is the practice of treating and replacing impermeable hardscape, like roads and roofs, with plant-based and water harvesting systems. Rain gardens, trees, rain barrels, and permeable pavers are all examples of GSI that you can see throughout Baltimore City. GSI reduces the volume of stormwater, slows its…
2019 was a big year for youth climate activism. By taking inspiration from Greta Thunberg and other young leaders, and channeling their deep concerns for the future of our planet, young Baltimoreans have been thinking globally while taking action locally. These are just a few of Blue Water Baltimore’s young advocates making waves. Joe Dubaj,…
For 23 years, Congressman Elijah E. Cummings represented Maryland’s 7th Congressional District, bettering Baltimore and Maryland as a whole. When he passed last October, his legacy as a champion of inclusion, equity, and community lived on. Blue Water Baltimore, the Port of Baltimore, and HeartSmiles hosted a tree planting later that month to bring together…
Medstar Harbor Hospital (MHH), one of two waterfront hospitals in Maryland, sits on a 30-acre campus directly on the Patapsco River. An extensive lawn and numerous parking lots had for years caused rainwater and pollution to flow off the property directly into the river, and subsequently into the Chesapeake Bay. As part of a 15-year…
The Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper, a program of Blue Water Baltimore, collects and analyzes water quality samples at 49 monitoring stations in Baltimore City and County. With the goal of answering “how’s the water, hon?” we share this data with the public through our interactive website Baltimore Water Watch. 2019 marks a major milestone for our…
Baltimore suffers from poor water quality due to decades of chronic sewage overflows and polluted stormwater runoff. Crumbling pipes and a century-old design allow hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage to pollute our streams and Harbor annually. Nonetheless, people fish, kayak, and recreate in the Inner Harbor and other major portions of the Patapsco River and…