March 28 (UPI) -- Maryland's environmental secretary has directed a state agency to take control of Baltimore's troubled Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant, the largest such facility statewide.
Secretary Ben Grumbles ordered the Maryland Environmental Service take over the Back River plant in Dundalk, an unincorporated community in Baltimore County, in a directive on Sunday to ensure public and environmental health protection after pollution and compliance issues.
"The Department 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 ... effects," Grumbles said in the directive.
Grumbles also directed the MES to do a comprehensive evaluation and assessment of the Back River plant's operation, maintenance, staffing and equipment issues and submit a report by June 6 to the Maryland Department of the Environment on findings and recommendations.
"This action is unprecedented, but needed to correct long-standing pollution problems at the state's largest wastewater treatment plant," Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Maryland Executive Director Josh Kurtz said in a statement Monday. "The Maryland Environmental Service has a strong record of maintaining wastewater plants and we expect that experience will be used to address the operational and maintenance issues prevalent throughout the sewage treatment process at the Back River plant."
"MES's report on what happened must be fully transparent," Kurtz added. "Residents are demanding answers as to how this integral plant was able to deteriorate to its current condition and who allowed it to happen. Residents who live near the plant need information about water quality risks."
The new directive came after Grumbles ordered Baltimore City on Thursday to operate the Back River plant in compliance with a permit, including providing an adequate number of operating staff, and to cease all unpermitted discharges within 48 hours.
A follow-up inspection Saturday found that the city had failed to comply with the order.
The Back River plant has faced regulatory scrutiny since last summer after Blue Water Baltimore detected elevated levels of bacteria there and at its city-based counterpart, Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant in Wagner's Point, and reported the pollution to MES.
State environmental inspections also found last summer the same two wastewater treatment plants illegally discharged millions of gallons a day of partially treated sewage into Chesapeake Bay.
By late January, the state of Maryland and Blue Water Baltimore had both sued Baltimore over the pollution issues at the treatment plants.
The latest Back River inspection came after boaters discovered hundreds of dead fish floating in the waters of the Back River near the plant alongside algae, which looked like sewage.
"It has long been plagued as gross and the poop river, and there is so much more potential for it," Desiree Greaver, a Rosedale resident and project management with Back River Restoration Committee, told The Baltimore Sun. "With the proper agency in there running it and doing proper maintenance and doing simple things, the river can be so much healthier."
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said in a statement that both plants "had issues that long predate my administration."
"We are committed to working with the Maryland Department of the Environment and the Maryland Environmental Service to get both of these facilities into compliance," Scott added. "This will not be an overnight fix but we must work collaboratively and combine our resources in order to ensure clean and healthy communities not just for our residents, but also for the wildlife that calls the Chesapeake Bay home."
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