Stinky fish. That’s how Beth-Anne Bowen described the smell — stagnant in the oppressive summer heat — drifting from the sewage pumping station across the street.
The day before, nearly 9 million gallons of raw sewage gushed from a broken pipe into the Patapsco River behind her Halethorpe bungalow, caking its banks with everything people put down the john — from soiled toilet paper to tampons to condoms.
“We put down lime to absorb some of the odor,” said public works engineer John Van Ness, picking his way through the aftermath two days after the spill. “But two hours ago, it was pretty awful.”
The July 15 leak was the 61st of its kind in Baltimore County this year, combining for 13 million gallons of sewage flooding Chesapeake Bay tributaries.
The pumping station will be replaced in five years, part of Baltimore County’s massive 15-year, $1 billion upgrade to its sewage system required in a 2005 legal settlement reached with Maryland’s Department of the Environment, the Department of Justice and the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act by allowing chronic spills.
The county’s ultimate goal is no overflows. But with much of the county’s 3,000 miles of pipes and 116 pumping stations reaching their 50th birthday, keeping up with repairs is like a game of Whac-a-Mole, said William Frankenfield, chief of the county’s bureau of utilities.
The county hired employees just to keep up with the demands of the agreement, Frankenfield said, starting with updating file cabinets to electronic records.
“I think it’s good what we are doing, because it needs it,” Frankenfield said. “Every overflow is illegal, whether it’s 50 gallons or 500,000 gallons.”
Bad year already
In 2005, the year of the agreement, Baltimore County reported 186 sewage spills, accounting for 18 percent of all the overflows in Maryland.
Since then, the number of spills has decreased to a reported 151 spills in 2006 and 87 last year.
But this year could prove the worse. Through May 31, the county reported 61 spills, and in terms of gallons, it already has surpassed the past four years, dumping 13 million gallons of sewage in Bay tributaries such as Gwynns Falls, Back River, Herring Run and Maidens Choice Run.
Thank God the pumping station near Reames and Buttonwood roads is downwind, says longtime Middle River homeowner Paul Mittermeir.
Mittermeir recalls sewage spills, one interrupting an Easter Sunday, so bad they attracted curious passers-by.
“Twenty-five or 26 years ago, they had so much toilet paper and feces going out, people came out and took pictures,” Mittermeir said.
But Baltimore County isn’t the only jurisdiction under legally binding improvement plans. Baltimore City and the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission — a combination of the sewage systems in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties — both signed consent decrees with MDE and EPA.
A review of state data shows overflows in Baltimore City have dropped every year since 2005, but the WSSC has taken over as the region’s worst offender in terms of the number of spills.
And the impacts aren’t bound by county lines.
Tom Filip, a consultant with Annapolis-based eco-friendly firm Ecologix and who lives on Stoney Creek, says he personally observes the effects of spills from an Anne Arundel County pumping station one mile away.
“Nitrogen and phosphorous compounds go right into the system,” Filip said. “In the warmer weather, obviously, that provides the impetus for algal blooms, and we all know when organisms die and decay, they suck the oxygen out of the water, creating dead zones.”
Making people sick
During the summer, experts said, swimmers, waders and fishermen are most at-risk for sewage-related illness, when creeks and streams and even reservoirs become popular swimming holes.
The proof is abundant: On June 20, kayakers leisurely paddled through the calm waters of Loch Raven Reservoir — one of the region’s drinking water supplies — one week after 900,000 gallons of raw sewage leaked from a Cockeysville pumping station.
Halethorpe residents said the Patapsco State Park site flooded by sewage earlier this month remains a popular fishing site despite warning signs.
And popular public beaches like Rocky Point Beach, the Gunpowder Falls Hammerman Area and Elk Neck State Park were closed this time last year after major sewage spills.
“You have huge loads of nutrients going into the system from the overflow, and it’s all untreated,” Filip said. “Furnace and Marley creeks right off Curtis Creek have been closed for 25 consecutive years for fecal contamination, and the kids don’t care.”
Howard County Health Officer Dr. Peter Beilenson said sewage spills cause several thousands of cases of intestinal infection each year.
But health officials said verifying illness associated with sewage spills is all but impossible. Bill Clark, who oversees Baltimore County’s recreational hygiene program, said he doesn’t recall receiving any complaints.
“People are always getting sick for one thing or another,” Clark said. “It’s almost as hard to link it to the last time you went swimming to the last time you ate at a restaurant.”
‘Awesome task’
Maryland and federal environmental agencies fine the county for each spill, costing taxpayers $769,000 since the 2005 agreement was implemented, officials said.
Still, stewards said Baltimore County is making progress.
“It’s one of the most restrictive consent decrees we have on anyone,” said Robert Ballinger, spokesman for MDE. “They are meeting their milestones.”
Plans to replace the White Marsh pumping station near Mittermeir — the site of a 17,000-gallon spill into White Marsh Run and Bird River in October 2007 — with one twice its size is part of the system overhaul.
The county installed relief points along the sewer lines to mitigate the influx of water into the system during heavy storms. Since the agreement, the county has eliminated all but two dozen, Frankenfield said, and plans to remove the rest are in place.
Rain remains a problem, when already old and leaky pipes can get clogged with debris like roots and logs. But officials said many of the spills are caused by the improper disposal of trash: Van Ness said he’s pulled everything from prison sheets to part of a small-block Chevy engine from sewage pipelines.
Some homeowners and commercial property owners illegally connect sump pumps and downspouts to sewer lines, adding volume the system was never intended to handle, officials said.
And in Howard County, homeowners dumping fats, oils and grease down the drain prompted a 500,000 gallon spill in January.
“The reality is, no matter what we do, you can’t control what gets put down the drain,” Frankenfield said.
Filip said the consent decree should improve the situation “tremendously.” Getting the region’s plumbing corrected will eliminate bacteria that pose public health risks and reduce algal blooms that threaten Bay life.
Still, he called the undertaking an “awesome task.”
“I’m glad I don’t have to do it,” he said. “But it’s an awesome task that will reap great rewards.”
