The latest monitoring report by the Maryland Department of the Environment showed continuing failures and persisting challenges at the Baltimore facility.
By Aman Azhar, Inside Climate News
Maryland and Baltimore environmental officials have agreed to extend a consent decree that would allow the state to continue overseeing operations at Baltimore’s deeply troubled Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant through the end of the year, the state said on Friday.
The consent decree was negotiated earlier this year after the Maryland Environmental Service (MES) reported in June that “catastrophic failures” at Back River had resulted in sewage discharges above and beyond its permitted limits. The agency had taken over operations at the plant in March.
The extension of the consent decree, aimed at ensuring the plant keeps working within permitted limits for pollution, must still be approved by the City Board of Estimates, which is expected on Oct. 19.
“The amendment extends the earlier agreement until the end of the calendar year, allowing MES to remain onsite through the end of the year and provide additional resources to help maintain and operate the plant,” said Jay Apperson, deputy director of communications for the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE).
Related:
- A Federal Judge Wants More Information on Polluting Discharges From Baltimore’s Troubled Sewage Treatment Plants
- Baltimore’s ‘Catastrophic Failures’ at Wastewater Treatment Have Triggered a State Takeover, a Federal Lawsuit and Citizen Outrage
- With Increased Nutrient Pollution in the Chesapeake Bay, Environmentalists Hope a New Law Will Cleanup Wastewater Treatment in Maryland
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