EPA orders Baltimore to expand city cleanup program for sewage backups - Baltimore Sun

EPA orders Baltimore to expand city cleanup program for sewage backups

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered Baltimore to expand a cleanup program for sewage backups in residents’ homes, arguing that the city’s current operation is insufficient.

As part of a pilot, the Baltimore Department of Public Works sends a contractor to clean the sewage from a person’s home if the overflow is caused by rain, which inundates the city’s aged sewer system, causing sewage to flow backward in the pipes and spew from toilets and into basements.

In a request last year to the EPA, Baltimore proposed continuing that approach long term.

But the EPA took issue with the program’s limited scope in a May 22 letter. The federal agency argued the city should cover dry-weather events, too, and send cleanup teams any time a resident’s sewage backup originates from the main sewer line (as opposed to the lines that run to individual residences, which are the homeowners’ responsibility).

The EPA asked the city to submit a new plan by July 21. Baltimore hasn’t submitted one yet, said Terri White, a spokesperson for EPA’s Mid-Atlantic region.

In a news release Thursday, local advocacy groups applauded the EPA’s stance, and urged the city to submit a plan that meets the agency’s demands.

“We call on Baltimore City to quickly propose an improved program to the regulators so that it can be implemented as soon as possible,” said Alice Volpitta, Baltimore harbor waterkeeper with Blue Water Baltimore. “People are dealing with raw sewage in their homes because of problems in the city’s system, and they can’t wait any longer.”

The Baltimore Department of Public Works did not respond to a request for comment from The Baltimore Sun.

In the May letter, the EPA approved of Baltimore’s plan to replace a reimbursement program for the sewage backups with a direct cleanup program, but argued the program didn’t go far enough.

The Maryland Department of the Environment agreed with the EPA’s assessment, said spokesperson Jay Apperson.

“A direct cleanup program, which the Agencies have always championed, will support more prompt cleanups, and thus less exposure to sewage, than a reimbursement program,” reads the EPA letter, written by Karen Melvin, director of the enforcement and compliance assurance division in the EPA’s Mid-Atlantic region. “The Agencies do not approve limiting the long-term program to capacity-related backups.”

When the city established in 2017 the pilot program to reimburse homeowners for backups caused by rain, the EPA approved it, because it “understood Baltimore’s concerns about the uncertainty of cost and management of the program,” Melvin wrote. The city started doing direct cleanups in 2021, as well, but still only for “wet-weather” backups.

Now Baltimore must expand its efforts, Melvin wrote. She argued that Baltimore has a $2 million annual budget for helping residents to clean sewage backups into their homes, but has only used a small fraction of the funding because so few backups qualify. From fiscal year 2018 to fiscal year 2022, the pilot provided just over $21,000 in assistance, the letter said.

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“Baltimore could easily cover more claims and more backups … while staying within the budget allocated,” wrote Melvin.

Melvin also said “EPA has historically enjoyed significant support from courts in requiring cities and municipalities to address building backups of any origin,” citing a number of court cases.

The EPA and the Maryland Department of the Environment have the power to review Baltimore’s sewer backup plans because they are governed by a court-monitored consent decree. The city entered into the consent decree in 2002, after state and federal environmental regulators raised concerns about the city’s sewer system. The agreement was updated in 2017 after the city missed its deadline for improvements.

Historically, Baltimore’s sewer system included dozens of outflow points through which, when pipes were overloaded, sewage flowed directly into waterways. As the city began to close those points, the number of backups into homes increased dramatically. Rainwater can infiltrate the city’s old, leaky pipes, only adding to the problem.

Because the EPA’s rejection of Baltimore’s request to continue limiting the cleanup program is part of the consent decree case, the city could challenge the EPA’s decision before a judge, Volpitta said.

Some advocates hope the city retains the reimbursement option, as well, in case some residents pay for cleanups before they find out about the city’s direct assistance program.

“If there are situations, like we have heard about from residents, where people end up falling through the cracks, there should be a stopgap measure in place where they can still get their costs reimbursed after the fact,” said Jennifer Kunze, Maryland program coordinator for Clean Water Action.