The Maryland Environmental Service (MES) is taking charge of operations at Baltimore City’s Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP).
Maryland’s environment secretary Ben Grumbles directed MES to oversee the operation, maintenance, and improvements of the plant, the largest in the state, to ensure that Baltimore City meets objectives that include protecting public and environmental health.
The directive specifies that MES shall take action to ensure that the city operates the plant in compliance with all terms of its discharge permit and cease all illegal discharges from the Back River WWTP.
The state’s Department of the Environment (MDE) has said that the directive was issued after Baltimore City failed to comply with a previous order from Secretary Grumbles to immediately end illegal discharges of water pollution at the plant and demonstrate that it has come into compliance with all Clean Water Act permit conditions.
That order was issued March 24 following an MDE inspection two days earlier that “revealed the precipitous decline of the functioning of several critical processes at the Plant in comparison with prior inspections.”
The latest directive states that MDE “has determined that the decline in the proper maintenance and operation of the Plant risks catastrophic failures at the Plant that may result in environmental harm as well as adverse public health and comfort effects.”
“The ongoing and escalating problems at the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant present an unacceptable threat to the environment and public health,” Grumbles says. “I am taking additional, necessary and immediate action by directing the Maryland Environmental Service to take charge of operations at the plant.”
The directive to MES was issued as set forth in state law. MES runs and maintains state-owned water, wastewater and solid waste management facilities across Maryland.
The Back River plant is the largest in Maryland, designed to discharge up to 180 million gallons a day of treated wastewater.
Earlier this year, MDE filed suit against the city seeking civil penalties and an order requiring the city to take all steps necessary for the city’s Back River and Patapsco treatment plants to come into permanent and consistent compliance with environmental law.
During MDE inspections last June, September and December at the Back River plant, and as a result of reviewing information and materials submitted by Baltimore City before and after the inspections, MDE observed extensive violations of the plant’s discharge permit, the suit filed in January states. That case is pending.
The March 24 MDE order set a 48-hour deadline for the city to demonstrate that it has come into compliance with all discharge permit conditions for the Back River plant. On Saturday, more than 48 hours after service of the order, MDE conducted a follow-up inspection of the plant. MDE documented that the corrective actions identified in the March 22 inspection have not been completed, and extensive violations of conditions contained in the facility’s discharge permit continue.
The directive also calls for MES to undertake a comprehensive assessment of the plant’s operation, maintenance, staffing, and equipment and, by June 6, 2022, to submit a report to MDE of its findings and recommendations.
