State and county officials closed several Baltimore-area beaches and issued health advisories Friday as a severed sewage pipe spewed gallons of raw waste into a Rosedale stream and Chesapeake Bay tributaries.
Heavy winds and rain earlier this week damaged a 36-inch pipe late Thursday morning, according to Baltimore County officials.
The sewage continued to spill at 1,600 gallons per minute into Friday evening, when officials said they expected to divert the overflow back into the sewage system within 48 hours.
But the Rosedale leak, near the Redhouse Run Pumping Station west of the Rosedale Industrial Park, was one of three major sewage spills across the state, said Maryland Department of the Environment spokesman Chuck Gates, including another in Hagerstown.
Officials blamed the spills on the torrentialdownpours earlier this week.
Protection against a sewage spill was built upstream from the Moore?s Run site 16 years ago, said county public works spokesman David Fiddler, but the rain was too much for the pipe.
“The debris and heavy rain came down against it, and the force was so great, it split the line,” he said.
Fiddler called the Rosedale site nearly inaccessible. Except for a small county-owned easement, the affected site is privately owned and someone else?s “liability headache,” he said.
Gates said the state?s first priority is to stop the leak, but will likely conduct an investigation to determine penalties.
Contractual workers at the scene Friday said they had been working all day and night. Some Rosedale residents said they were unaware of the spill, but noted they are on city water.
“Thank god, it won?t affect us,” said William Bolling.
Sam Hedenberg and Doug Dennison contributed to this story.
?Water contact alert?
» Baltimore County officials posted a “water contact alert” for Back River residents, advising them not to swim in or drink the water, and closed Rocky Point beach.
» The state?s park service closed Gunpowder Falls Hammerman Area and Elk Neck State Park to swimming and was monitoring Hart Miller Island and North Point State Park.
