In the summer of 2023, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) made the right call on sewage backups in Baltimore City homes. They ordered the Baltimore City Department of Public Works (DPW) to expand their court-mandated emergency clean-up assistance program to cover all sewage backups caused by city-owned infrastructure, rain or shine. But Baltimore City refused to expand the program and has been fighting against EPA and MDE’s order for an entire year.
Now, EPA, MDE, and DPW are negotiating in a closed-door process to decide the fate of thousands of people who suffer from these sewage backups each year - without any public input.
The assistance program has improved since its creation in 2018, but there’s still a long way to go to protect Baltimore families. Right now, the existing assistance program only covers capacity-related sewage backups caused by wet weather. Households who experience a sewer backup during dry weather - 80% of sewer backups in the city - aren’t eligible for help. There were nearly 2,000 sewer backups caused by conditions in the city pipes in Fiscal Year 2023, and the overwhelming majority of impacted households were left to deal with the sewage backup on their own. That means having to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket for professional cleaning, going through insurance and risk losing coverage if City infrastructure causes multiple backups over time, or cleaning up the sewage backup by hand and risking acute and long-term health impacts.
We need your help in making it loud and clear: EPA & MDE should stand their ground and require Baltimore City to clean up all sewage backups caused in part or in full by conditions in city-owned pipes. Mayor Scott and Baltimore City DPW should take responsibility for the impacts the city’s pipe infrastructure is having on Baltimore families. Sewage backups are a public health threat and can be a massive financial burden on low-income Baltimoreans. Expanding the sewage backup assistance program is the right thing to do for climate resiliency, public health, and environmental justice.
For more information, read our October 2022 report, Expanding Baltimore City’s Sewage Backup Assistance Programs.
