Sewage

A sewer line leak of 25,000 gallons led the Anne Arundel County Health Department to post an emergency closing Friday of Stony Run, a small creek in Linthicum and Hanover. A blockage or buildup of materials caused the leak near Science Drive in Linthicum, said Matt Diehl, a Public Works Department spokesman. The waterway is closed from there to the Patapsco River. Anyone who touches the water should wash well with soap and water, health department spokeswoman Elin Jones said, and clothing that comes into contact with that water should also be washed.

A warning against water contact in the lower Patapsco River issued nearly two months ago has been lifted, the Anne Arundel County health department announced Monday. Health officials had ordered an emergency closure of the river downstream from Annapolis Road in Brooklyn and warned against swimming or other water contact after sewage spilled March 25 from a Baltimore County pumping station. Workers halted the spill soon afterward, according to a spokesman for the county public works department.

Baltimore County's Department of Public Works is warning residents to avoid contact with the Patapsco River after 30 million gallons of diluted sewage overflowed into the waterway during the weekend. A dozen pumps at the Patapsco Pumping Station, which is undergoing renovation, were shut down Saturday afternoon to protect them from damage after the melting snow and heavy rain raised water levels, said David Fidler, department spokesman. With nowhere to go, the diluted sewage spilled into the river over a 20-hour period.

Sewage backed up into multiple homes Wednesday night in Brooklyn, bringing city crews out to find the cause, according to Public Works spokesman Kurt Kocher. The problem is affecting four or five homes in the 3700 block of Brooklyn Ave., which likely means there is a problem on a city line, Kocher said. Kocher said the city responded within two hours of hearing of the problem, and that crews were still assessing the issue and trying to determine the cause late Wednesday. "We're looking at it to see if there's any kind of engineering issue," he said.

A blockage in a 12-inch sewer main caused 1.16 million gallons of sewage to overflow into a tributary of Herring Run, according to a statement Wednesday by the Baltimore County Department of Public Works. The sewer line is in the Anneslie-Idlewylde area near the border of Baltimore and Baltimore County, DPW said. The overflow occurred Oct. 12 but was not discovered until Tuesday after an odor complaint was investigated, according to the statement. The line was cleared around 6 p.m. Tuesday.

An estimated 2.4 million gallons of sewage overflowed Sunday afternoon into the Back River in Essex, the Department of Public Works said Tuesday in a statement. The waterfront at Rocky Point, Cox's Point and Edgemere Park was posted with overflow notices by Baltimore County. The overflow, largely attributable to heavy rainfall, lasted from about 12:20 p.m. until about 2:00 p.m. A large volume of rain water in the sewer lines increased beyond normal levels the amount of sewage coming into the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant in Baltimore County, according to the department.

An electrical failure at an Anne Arundel County wastewater pumping station has caused an overflow of 10,000 gallons of sewage, county officials said Monday. The electricity at the Severn Run Sewage Pumping Station in the 1500 block of Old Mill Road failed on noon Sunday, likely due to the storm, causing a back-up and ultimate overflow, said Matt Diehl, a spokesman for the county Department of Public Works. DPW crews contained the overflow by 2 p.m. and the pumping station is currently operating normally, Diehl said.

A broken sewer line has caused a sewage overflow in Herring Run Stream in Northeast Baltimore Wednesday, according to Department of Public Works officials. Crews said the sewer line break occurred Tuesday morning, near Belair Road and Parkside Drive in the Belair-Edison neighborhood. The leak was reported by a resident. DPW officials are reporting the leak rate at 5 to 8 gallons per minute and the total overflow is approaching 10,000 gallons total. Officials urge residents to avoid contact with city-wide streams.

Heavy rains infiltrated sanitary sewer lines at two locations in Baltimore and caused more than 24,000 gallons of untreated sewage to overflow from Wednesday evening into Thursday morning, according to the city Department of Public Works. A 12,100-gallon spill occurred in the 1700 block of East Chase Street and 12,300 gallons overflowed in the 1900 block of Falls Road. "Rain gets into the cracks of these old pipes," said Kurt Kocher, DPW spokesman. "We are aware of the problems at these locations, when it rains heavily.

Baltimore's public works department said that a power outage at a wastewater treatment facility caused about 20,000 gallons of sewage to flow into the outer harbor on Saturday. The main power and backup power were disabled from 4:55 p.m. to 5:35 p.m., and 40,000 gallons of sewage flowed from the Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant, near Curtis Bay. Half of the spillage stayed on the plant site, while the rest entered the storm drain system and the outer harbor. The spill was caused by a power outage — possibly due to Saturday's storms — and a circuit interruption to backup power, according to the Department of Public Works.

Record-high water temperatures and a March sewage leak are contributing to a large algae bloom in the Baltimore harbor, bringing what is known as a "mahogany tide" of reddish-brown algae to the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River. The bloom is somewhat earlier and more severe than usual, scientists say, despite the fact that a developing drought has limited runoff pollution from feeding algae growth. Water testing conducted by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources shows skyrocketing levels of chlorophyll, the molecule plants use to turn sunlight into energy, and plummeting levels of oxygen in waters near Brooklyn and Cherry Hill.

An array of solar panels, spreading across nearly five acres at the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant in Essex, could deliver significant energy savings and will pay for itself within a decade, officials said Tuesday. The 4,200 American-made panels, installed in the past three months at a cost of about $4 million, have begun to supply about 5 percent of the energy — up to 1,000 kilowatts per hour — needed to run the plant on Eastern Avenue. The plant serves about 1.3 million residents in the city and Baltimore County and can treat 180 million gallons of sewage a day. It uses the methane byproduct from its treatment process to produce about 20 percent of the power for its equipment.

A pipe that transports about 17 million gallons of untreated sewage from western Baltimore County to the Patapsco Treatment Plant in the city ruptured Sunday and continues to overflow into the Patapsco River. In response, the Anne Arundel County Health Department has ordered the closing of the river in Brooklyn, from Annapolis Road downstream, according to a news release. The department has posted signs advising against direct water contact and advises people who do come in contact to launder clothes and wash skin immediately with soap and warm water.

With the Chesapeake Bay cleanup at a critical juncture, Gov. Martin O'Malley is calling on Marylanders to double down on their contribution to the effort, proposing to raise the "flush fee" every household pays from $2.50 to $5 a month, on average. Without the increase, administration officials warn, they face a $385 million shortfall starting this year in the funds needed to upgrade pollution controls at the state's biggest sewage treatment plants — most notably Baltimore's century-old Back River facility, the largest in Maryland.

People should avoid direct contact with Beards Creek in Riva between Hoot Owl Road and Berkshire Drive, Anne Arundel health officials said Wednesday. A warning for the area is in effect until Jan. 4 because of a sewage spill that was caused by a blocked sewer line, according to a statement from the Anne Arundel County Department of Health. About 2,000 gallons of sewage spilled into the creek Wednesday. Warning signs have been posted and do not restrict boating, fishing or crabbing, the health department said.

Seeking to end a long history of abuse and neglect of Baltimore's waters, an ambitious new plan calls for a concerted public and private campaign to curb sewage leaks and littering and make the harbor swimmable by decade's end. The "Healthy Harbor" plan to be unveiled Wednesday by the Waterfront Partnership - a coalition of businesses, nonprofit groups and city agencies - urges the city and Baltimore County to step up their efforts to clean...

A contractor digging up an old sewer line in Northeast Baltimore yesterday caused a sewage overflow that the city's Department of Public Works estimated at 15 to 20 gallons a minute. Efforts to stop the spill near the 5200 block of Goodnow Road were continuing yesterday afternoon. Officials said rough terrain was hampering their work. The city said in a statement that a new sewer line is being installed. The old line will be bypassed and cemented shut. Signs are being posted, and residents are urged to avoid contact with Biddison Run, which runs through the Eastern Sanitation Yard.

Heavy rains routinely trigger big sewage overflows in Baltimore, but there is growing evidence that chronic leaks from the region's aging, cracked sewer lines are a bigger threat to public health. Though storm-fed spills can be dramatic, Baltimore's' streams and harbor are also fouled on sunny days as storm drains yield grayish discharges that look and smell like sewage. That is what they are. Even the nearly $2 billion overhaul under way on the 3,100 miles of sewer lines in the city and Baltimore County won't be enough to make those waters safe, experts and activists say. Leaks allow raw sewage to seep into storm drain pipes, which funnel rain from streets, parking lots and buildings into nearby waterways.

Heavy rains infiltrated sanitary sewer lines at two locations in Baltimore and caused more than 24,000 gallons of untreated sewage to overflow from Wednesday evening into Thursday morning, according to the city Department of Public Works. A 12,100-gallon spill occurred in the 1700 block of East Chase Street and 12,300 gallons overflowed in the 1900 block of Falls Road. "Rain gets into the cracks of these old pipes," said Kurt Kocher, DPW spokesman. "We are aware of the problems at these locations, when it rains heavily.