Hurricane Irene Caused Baltimore Sewage Spill

Hurricane Irene leaves sewage spills in wake

Hurricane Irene did more than topple trees and turn out the lights across the Baltimore area. The storm left behind some nasty, stinky reminders of its fury, as sewage spills forced beach closures and triggered warnings to stay away from the water as summer draws to a close.

The worst problem came in the Baltimore Highlands area southwest of the city, where a ruptured sewer main has poured about 100 million gallons of raw sewage into the lower Patapsco River over the past week. Power outages also led to more than a dozen other sewage spills across the region...

It's an old story.  The sewage infrastructure on the old big cities is in pitiful shape, and the cities will not spend the money to upgrade them, preferring to wait until forced and preferably bribed with federal money, to fix it.  Cities are the locations of wealth in our society, but they can't be bothered to solve their own waste problems as long as they are allowed to export it.