We woke yesterday morning to a remarkable spectacle: water flooding downtown Baltimore, snarling traffic and cutting off water, electricity, telephone and Internet service to many center city businesses. To city residents, such breaks have become an all-too-frequent occurrence. There have been more than 5,000 breaks in the past four years. Earlier this year the rupture of a 30-inch pipe under East Monument Street disrupted performances at Center Stage, flooded the basement of a state building and a church, and forced the closure of sections of Calvert Street.
Such serious breaks signal a larger crisis. Every day the city loses enough water from leaks to fill the Baltimore World Trade Center. Replacing aging pipes is crucial to the city's economic future, but funds available are limited. Other cities are wrestling with similar problems, and Congress should help answer this national challenge soon by building a substantial water infrastructure renewal program.
The Baltimore Department of Public Works estimates the cost of needed work on the city's water, sewer and storm water systems at $2.2 billion. The Public Works Department has asked the Board of Estimates to increase city water bills by 9 percent to pay for a fraction of the needed pipe repairs, at an added cost of $74.52 a year for an average city household. The city is also seeking increases from customers in Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Carroll and Howard counties.
