Our Recommendations for the Baltimore City Consent Decree

The Issue

Baltimore City has released its Revised Phase II Plan of the Modified Sanitary Sewer Consent Decree which includes a major extension of its deadline to 2046. This agreement was established in 2002 to get our City’s sewage spills and overflows under control for the benefit of our entire ecosystem.

Baltimore City’s Consent Decree is not just a legal document – it’s a promise to its people.  A city that still experiences chronic sewage overflows twenty years later has not fulfilled that promise. 

We urge DPW, MDE, and EPA to adopt a transparent, equitable, and science-based Phase II Plan that ends sewage pollution once and for all.  We’re all in this together.

Our Recommendations

Meet the Consent Decree, Don’t Just Move the Goalposts

The proposed schedule outlined in the Phase II Plan extends past the Consent Decree’s firm December 31, 2030 deadline for project completion. This delay is a major modification that requires formal renegotiation with EPA, MDE, and the community, not quiet approval through this plan. By proposing a 16-year extension of the Modified Consent Decree without publicly and explicitly acknowledging the need for a modification of the agreement, DPW is undermining public confidence in the system and legal compliance with the MCD.

Maintain the 2030 deadline for construction project completion unless formally modified through a transparent public process.

Protect Public Health and Waterways

Even after spending more than $2 billion, DPW’s plan still allows millions of gallons of sewage to enter the Jones Falls, Herring Run, Gwynns Falls, and Baltimore Harbor.

The chart on page 46 of the Phase II Plan contains a list of manholes that will continue to violate the established Levels of Protection for sensitive and non-sensitive areas, even after construction projects are completed.  This is unacceptable and does not comply with the terms of the Modified Consent Decree.

DPW’s claim that “the final 6 percent of SSOs” (sanitary sewer overflows) are too costly to fix quickly ignores the reality that even small volumes of sewage cause large health and ecological harms, especially in sensitive or recreational areas.

• Hold zero tolerance for sewage overflows in sensitive areas beyond the established Level of Protection outlined in the MCD.
• Accelerate projects at high-impact sites instead of deferring them to 2046.

Strengthen Accountability and Transparency

DPW continues to question its own hydraulic model while refusing to share the data needed to verify it. Residents can’t evaluate progress if the City hides basic information.

DPW claims the hydraulic model is over-predicting SSOs, but this observation is based on reported sewage overflow data.  SSOs are chronically under-reported, and these reports can’t be used to justify shirking the legal requirements and responsibilities outlined in the MCD.

The Phase II Plan, and the hydraulic model that informs project selection and prioritization under this plan, uses precipitation data from 1991-2010. This leaves out important events like Tropical Storm Lee, Superstorm Sandy, the 2014 6-inch rain event that led to the CSX rail line collapse in Baltimore, the 2016 storm that flooded Ellicott City, and the multiple storms in 2018 that flooded Ellicott City & the Frederick Road corridor amidst the wettest year on record.  The precipitation data that DPW is feeding into the model is already outdated, and projects constructed using that data won’t provide the levels of protection required by the year 2030 or 2046.

• Publish details of the City’s hydraulic model online, and provide Phase I post-construction and ongoing flow-monitoring data in the required MCD Quarterly Reports.
• Commission an independent technical review of the City’s hydraulic model and SSO reporting.
• Calibrate models using rainfall intensity and duration, not just raw SSO counts.  There is updated precipitation data available from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and DPW should utilize this best-available dataset to update its model and inform the Phase II Plan.
• Assume model predictions are accurate until disproven; protect people first.

Increase Fairness and County Accountability

A significant amount of the sewage treated by Baltimore City originates in Baltimore County. Yet County sewer pipe rehabilitation work remains incomplete. Without clear County commitments, the City will continue to suffer an inequitable burden of sewage overflows, backups, and waterway pollution.

The Phase II Plan discusses the “hydraulic modelling partnership” between Baltimore City and Baltimore County, but it is unclear if the two municipalities are using the same hydraulic model and inputting the same data & assumptions into that model.  In order to effectively stop sewage overflows into our homes and waterways, the sewage collection system must be treated as a holistic entity, and one unified hydraulic model must be utilized for the entire system.

• Require that one unified hydraulic model be developed and utilized for both Baltimore City and Baltimore County modeling and accountability under both Consent Decrees.
• Establish adequate cost-sharing so that City ratepayers are not forced to subsidize County noncompliance.

Equity, Affordability, and Environmental Justice

Baltimore residents, especially in Black and low-income neighborhoods, continue to bear the burden of basement backups and flooding despite years of steep water and sewer rate hikes. DPW’s “affordability” argument ignores the inequities already at play, and it cannot come at the expense of public health and clean water.

When sewage backups happen in someone’s basement instead of our local streams, they aren’t technically considered sewage overflows since they aren’t contaminating waters of the U.S. The program set up in 2017 to address basement backups is fatally flawed and residents still aren’t getting the help they need.  Ignoring sewage backups in the prioritization of Phase II projects effectively creates “sacrifice zones” throughout the City, and puts those bearing the brunt of our failing infrastructure at the back of the line.

• The Plan should prioritize projects in communities most affected by sewage backups.
• Pursue state and federal infrastructure funds (SRF, WIFIA, BIL, Bay Restoration) before passing additional costs to households.
• Since Baltimore City tracks residential sewage backup data via its 311 nonemergency call system, it should utilize that dataset in conjunction with data from its Basement Backup Expedited Reimbursement Program, the newer Sewage Onsite Support Program, and the hydraulic model to more accurately account for the number and frequency of sewage backups occurring throughout the City. All sewage backups should be included to ensure that the communities with the highest rates of sewage backups – regardless of the size of the pipes the backups are occurring in – are first in line for infrastructure improvements during Phase II of the MCD.

How You Can Help

Contact the Baltimore City Department of Public Works, Maryland Department of the Environment, and Environmental Protection Agency and tell them that the Phase II plan needs much more review.