A Sewage Leak in the Choptank River

From 47 ABC, 30,000 Gallons of Sewage Leaks into Choptank River

The City of Cambridge is notifying the public that of a sanitary sewer overflow that began on Tuesday, Feb. 17 and ended around 8:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 20.

The spill is believed to be the result of a ruptured force main, and occurred adjacent to the parking lot behind 2831 Ocean Gateway. Officials believe approximately 30,000 gallons of a mixture of untreated sanitary waste and stormwater were discharged into the Choptank River.

The ruptured force main has since been repaired and affected areas have been cleaned. There is no impact to the public drinking water supply at this time. The overflow has been reported to the Maryland Department of the Environment and the Dorchester County Health Department.

Due to the leak, the public is advised to avoid contact with the affected waters and any standing water near the overflow location. Swimming, fishing, and other direct contact activities should be avoided in the Choptank River, from East of Woods Road to the Eastern City boundary.

Well, it's not 300,000,000 gallons, like the Potomac River, but then the Choptank is a much smaller river. 

Shit Still Don't Flow Uphill

It's a big day in news from the Potomac Interceptor sewage spill:

The Balmer Banner, How the sewer line collapse unfolded and spread millions of gallons of wastewater into the Potomac River

NBC 4, Potomac sewage spill: Federal government not paying for all of repairs "D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said she expected the federal government to reimburse 100% of repair costs. But the Army Corps of Engineers said the government will fund a portion. News4’s Mark Segraves reports." Why would she expect the feds to pay the whole thing?

WTOP, Who foots the $20M bill of the Potomac River sewage cleanup, repairs?.  "Earlier this week, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser submitted a Presidential Emergency Disaster Declaration request, seeking full reimbursement for costs incurred by both D.C. and D.C. Water. “We expect 100% reimbursement,” Bowser said. But D.C. Water’s facilities, including the Potomac Interceptor, are funded through an intermunicipal agreement, or IMA. Maryland and Virginia would be on the hook for more than 50% of the cost, per the agreement. So will the federal government approve D.C.’s request? And if so, will Maryland and Virginia’s share be covered too?"

ABC 7, DC Water, Va. and Md. health officials provide next steps in sewage spill repairs. Word salad.

WBOC, MD officials: Chesapeake Bay oysters remain safe following Potomac River sewage spill. I'm still not going to eat oysters from north of the 301 bridge.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Baltimore District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers activates Emergency Operations Center in support of Potomac Interceptor Spill response efforts

WaPoo, A Potomac island was their haven. A sewage spill made it unreachable. What, did they swim?

Flotsam and Jetsam - Trump Steps in the Potomac Shit

Leslie Eastman at LI notices Potomac Interceptor Rupture Poised to Become the Largest Sewage Spill in U.S. History "This man-caused disaster not merely a technical breakdown but a profound public health, environmental, and governance crisis affecting downstream communities." Hat Hair's Beege Welborn says 'P' Is for 'Perfume' as in 'River' - It's Also for 'Potomac'. At News Wax, Trump, Md. Gov. Moore Battle Over Potomac Sewage Spill Response. I say, get every federal bureaucrat in DC out there with a shovel.

From Fox, Collins boosts Republican voter ID effort, but won’t scrap filibuster, "Mike Lee-led campaign gains crucial vote but faces 60-vote Senate filibuster challenge." At RCP, Sen. Dave McCormick on SAVE Act: If An 80-20 Issue Can't Get 60 Votes, Something Is Amiss In The Senate, but then, we knew that. Dmitri Bolt at TownHall, CNN Confronts Chuck Schumer on Voter ID. Capt. Ed at Hat Hair hears Fetterman: What's Wrong With Requiring ID to Vote? Secretary Kristi Noem @Sec_Noem, "It must be exhausting to regularly manufacture outrage even over the most commonsense statements. Yes, we must build election infrastructure that makes it easy and secure for eligible American citizens to vote—while preventing non-citizens, including illegal aliens, from casting ballots. The choice of who to vote for is obviously up to the voters themselves. So here's the real question for @jaketapper @jonkarl and anyone else clutching pearls over this: Do you actually support allowing people who are in this country illegally to vote in our elections?" Support? They're counting on it.

Sundance at CTH explores the relationship between Steve Bannon and Jeffrey Epstein. John LeFevre @JohnLeFevre, "Nothing from NBC News on Obama's lawyer or Reid Hoffman - who donated $100 million to Democrats, bankrolled the Kavanaugh smear campaign, and funded the E. Jean Carroll hoax against Trump. Media silence when it doesn't fit the narrative." Quote NBC News @NBCNews, "At least half a dozen top Trump administration officials appear in the Jeffrey Epstein files.  Batya Ungar-Sargon @bungarsargon, ""Ironically, in denouncing how 'wealthy powerful men' are protected in a two-tiered legal system, Khanna pulled the ultimate powerplay — defaming four individuals with little concern of accountability. Ironically, Khanna succeeded in showing the ultimate example of the impunity enjoyed by 'wealthy, powerful men.'" Quote Jonathan Turley @JonathanTurley, "I have spoken with members who were part of the conference on the petition to force the release of these documents. Massie and Khanna opposed efforts to amend the petition to allow for greater resources to review the millions of documents... https://jonathanturley.org/2026/02/15/ro-" From Campus Reform, Jeffrey Epstein's obsession with human bodies led him to fund the genetics research of two current Harvard profs. "Epstein was obsessed with blue eyes and worked with scientific contacts to prove his hypothesis that blue eyes were a signifier of high intelligence while he was funding and visiting Harvard's Program for Evolutionary Dynamics." At Fox, Israeli intelligence sources reject claims Jeffrey Epstein was Mossad operative following document releases "Israeli prime minister escalates political feud following renewed scrutiny of Epstein's dealing with ex-Israeli leader Ehud Barak." But then, they would if it were true, too.

Dave Strom at Hat Hair claims You Won't Believe The New York Times' Take on Rubio's Munich Speech. "The New York Times' reaction to the speech mirrored that of AOC: Western values suck, and Europe is no longer Western because its population is being replaced by third worlders. AOC said it outright, giving an explicitly Marxist race and class-based analysis, while the Times sanded the sharp corners down a bit." You'd be surprised by what I might believe. Hat Hair's Duane Patterson looks at Marco's Moment, Morons, and Mendacity in Munich. Sarah Anderson at TownHall watches Rubio’s European Tour Heats Up — WaPo and the Cuban Revolution Take a Beating. Sundance hosts Secretary Marco Rubio's Joint Press Conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and reports President Trump Announces Board of Peace Meeting February 19th at the Donald J Trump Institute of Peace. 

PJM's Cathy Salgado hears the  Trump Admin tout $2,400 Savings From Ending Start-Stop Car Feature. We don't have it, but that's got to be annoying. We have a hybrid, and it alway shuts off, unless it need charge. But at least the electric side accelerates right off. News Wax, Trump Touts Dip in Mortgage Rates Vs. Biden. ""Joe Biden’s inflation crisis crushed the dream of homeownership for millions of Americans — but President Trump is bringing it back," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News." It's a bit much to claim credit for, but if the Democrats are going to wield the "affordability" club, it's fair.

From NYPo, Trump threatens kidnappers with death penalty if Nancy Guthrie isn’t returned alive in call with The Post, Democrats immediately call for cashless bail for the offenders /sarc.

Dave Strom looks at the Democrats Auditioning for Nomination in Munich. At Twitchy, AOC Mocks Marco Rubio for Saying Cowboys Come From Spain (Ask African Slaves). End Wokeness @EndWokeness, "AOC mocks Rubio: "My favorite part is he said cowboys are rooted in Spain. Uhhh, speak to Mexicans & African slaves!" Spain introduced horses to Mexico." Capt. Ed at Hat Hair calls it Too Dumb to Check: Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be AOCs. Joe Chalfant at TownHall, Did AOC's Word Salad Just End Her Presidential Ambitions? Hardly, it's par for Democrats who have to constantly talk around truth and logic. Brad Slager at RedState, The Ocasio-Cortez Disaster in Munich Gives a 2028 Election Primer As Bloomberg News Cleans Up Her Mess. Driscoll at Insty, WAS IT OVER WHEN THE VENEZUELANS BOMBED PEARL HARBOR? Western Lensman @WesternLensman, "AOC: The US shouldn't engage in actions like the one against Maduro just because Venezuela is “below the equator." Venezuela is not below the equator. Got a round of applause anyway." A Larry video at Hat Hair, AOC, Hillary Clinton Globally Shamed As Rubio Stuns World Elites. Driscoll again with DAAAMN: Watch Hillary’s Face as Czech Deputy PM Macinka Shuts Her Down in Heated Back and Forth on Gender. Fox News @FoxNews, "REALITY CZECH: Hillary Clinton clashes with Czech Deputy PM Petr Macinka after he says President Trump reacted to policies that went "too far." MACINKA: "We saw the woke revolution. I don't agree with the gender revolution, the climate alarmism..." CLINTON: "Which gender? Women having their rights?" . . ." Amy Curtis noticed Hillary Clinton Lied About Deportations Under Her Husband and Obama. Well, her mouth was moving. 

Congressman Randy Fine @RepFine, "Piers, what is disgusting is a major NYC Muslim leader saying we must give up our dogs because "NYC is coming to Islam" We will not be shamed into being conquered like the Europeans. I choose my dog. I know my first appearance on your show didn't go well for you, but if you want to try again, I am happy to administer another beating." Jake Tapper @jaketapper, "Disgusting bigotry." Quote Congressman Randy Fine @RepFine "If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one." Amy Curtis @RantyAmyCurtis, "So for the midterms, @TheDemocrats have decided to take the side of banning dogs and calling the critics who oppose banning dogs “racist.” Keep up the good work." and Totally weird how not one Leftist has said, “No, we won’t let Muslims ban your dogs.” I’m sure it’s just a coincidence. RBe @RBPundit, "Apparently all the political commentators just flat out missed that some Muslim activist who works for the new NYC mayor said dogs should be banned indoors in New York." Wilfred Reilly @wil_da_beast630, "This "dogs" tweet thing is a classic example of a totally fake, made up scandal. A Muslim troll - an adult with a powerful position - tweeted that New Yorkers should get rid of all (indoor) dogs to appease Muslim immigrants, because dogs are filthy in Islam and Muslim incomers do not want to see them. In direct response, quoting his opponent, another powerful adult said that - if forced to make this binary choice by Muslims - he would prefer dogs to Muslim incomers. This is about the 90% US position, btw. Every S...S...SHOCKED response to part two is literally just someone intentionally ignoring the 1st 1/2-2/3 of the exchange so they can do the "You Monster!" bit. It really is tiring."

At Am Great, Ed Ring calls Mamdani and Newsom The Democratic Party’s Fraternal Twins. "Mamdani and Newsom sell rival myths, but their shared model—big government fused with big corporate power—centralizes control, inflates costs, and leaves ordinary Americans paying the price." At PM, Tenants in NYC public housing won't be allowed to complain about city landlord at Mamdani's 'rental ripoff' hearings. "If these hearings were truly about holding bad landlords accountable, the over 500,000 residents in NYCHA would be able to meaningfully participate." Government cheese. 

Jonathan Turley sees California Democrats Trigger a Reverse Gold Rush with a Wealth Tax: Eat the Rich. Hat Hair's John Sexton, Billionaires Make Plans to Avoid the California Wealth Tax. David Marcus @BlueBoxDave, "There’s a weird poeticism to the radical American left being funded by divorce settlements." Quote Forbes @Forbes, "MacKenzie Scott’s $26 billion giving sprint in seven years, including a record $7.2 billion last year, makes her the third-biggest philanthropist of all-time. She gave more in 2025 than Musk, Page, Ellison and her ex-husband Bezos have in their lifetimes combined." Beege Welborn, How Green Is My Cult: CA Now Importing US Gas From *check notes* 4000 Miles Away. Driscoll sees BLUE STATES ARE MOVING LEGISLATION FORWARD TO RESTRICT HOW MUCH YOU CAN DRIVE: "The “15 Minute City” concept is gaining traction on the left, especially in Great Britain, where the Labour Party and leftist cities are seeking to impose harsh restrictions on vehicle use. Here in the U.S., blue states are pivoting toward mileage caps, which would establish maximum “vehicle miles traveled” (“VMT”) allowed for an entire state, with regulators then creating “incentives” to reduce individual driving so as to achieve the VMT objective. From News Nation: “Massachusetts bill aims to reduce driving to meet climate goals” . . ." From the College Fix, EXPOSED: Taxpayers paying for Democrat activists’ grad school tuition. Ben Smith at RedState, Democratic Auditor Takes Own Party to Court After $12M Fraud and 72% Vote for Audit. 

Stacy McCain has a warning, Warning: Stay Away From St. Louis, "“Well, Stacy, how dangerous is St. Louis?” you ask. IT’S WORSE THAN BALTIMORE!" I demand a recount. At Insty, CRIME: Follow the science! Arthur MacWaters @ArthurMacwaters, "Criminality is not random Only 0.2% of people ever commit murder, yet 67% of **all murders**are committed by people with prior arrests People inclined to commit crime will continue to, unless stopped. When those people are stopped, the crime stops." Quote Hunter Ash @ArtemisConsort, "This is a key point: the idea that imprisoning criminals won’t reduce crime tacitly assumes that there’s some kind of crime quota, and other people will start assaulting strangers if we lock up the people currently doing it. x.com/usinglyft/stat…"

At Hat Hair, Capt. Ed, Homan: You Better Believe We'll 'Flood the Zone' in 'Sanctuaries' Again, Dave Strom fears The Ground Troops of the Revolution Are Being Trained Before Our Eyes and In Minneapolis It's the Taxpayers Who Pick Up the Tab for Anti-ICE Activism and John Sexton reports a Public School Teacher Killed by Illegal Immigrant Fleeing ICE. From CIS, DOJ Reveals that Biden Granted ‘Quiet Amnesty’ to Nearly a Million Aliens. "Cases that have been ‘temporarily paused’ for more than three decades, and other denials of justice." The Redoubtable Julie Kelly (at substack) explores how a Deadly Crash Exposes Danger of So-Called 'Chameleon Carriers'. "Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and some federal lawmakers are looking into how trucking companies avoid oversight and accountability through shadow operations in the trucking industry."

The Chronic has No Pity for the ‘Washington Post.’ Ace, "The Media Whined That the Washington Post Cancelled Its World-Beating Sports Section. The Media, You Will Not Be Surprised to Learn, Lied." By "sports," they meant what they mean in every case: DEI propaganda and gay communism bullshit. They do this with every single entertainment men like. They fill men's entertainment with nonstop pro-gay, pro-feminism, pro-DEI propaganda. So that's what was going on with the Washington Post's "sports" desk before they cancelled it. Free Beacon's Andrew Stiles: . . ." Dave Strom notes They Don't Even Try to Distinguish Fact From Fiction Anymore. The article as about the Slantic, but it's a general problem.

Insty calls this SAVAGE. AND FAIR. Rolling Stone @RollingStone, "The MAGA right says Charlie Kirk is a martyr for freedom of expression, but still want people to lose their jobs for criticizing his rhetoric. DataRepublican (small r) @DataRepublican, "You, of all outlets, need to SHUT UP. You were the first outlet to dox me. You ran a deranged piece painting me as some CFPB mastermind only because you couldn’t dig up dirt. You tried to cancel me. You don’t get to whine about cancel culture. Here’s the rule: if you don’t want to get fired, don’t cheer the deaths of your neighbors, family, or fellow Americans. You and I are not the same. We see you. You are hypocrites. You are evil. Go crawl away in shame."

PJM's Mike Cantrell hears an Aussie Influencer Says Pop Star’s Mansion Joke Got Him Booted From the U.S. “Billie Eilish got me deported from the US—I think her legal team contacted DHS,” Drew Pavlou wrote in a post published Sunday on X. “I spent 30 hours at LAX immigration trying to explain that my s---posts were just a joke and that I didn’t actually plan to personally move into her mansion.” Dmitri Bolt, A Man Joked About Moving Into Billie Eilish's Mansion. Her Response Is Breaking Irony Detectors. Man, she's really got that surly teen look down pat, for a 24 year old woman.

Matt Vespa thinks you should Look at What the Rhode Island Hockey Rink Shooter Posted on X Before the Attack. Steve Lookner @lookner "This is the X account of the Pawtucket high school hockey game shooter, according to the New York Post. Police said the shooter's name was Robert Dorgan and he/she went by the name Roberta Esposito. The shooter shot family members and a family friend, then himself/herself. (h/t @DoctorTurtleboy)" At Twitchy, DEVELOPING: Robert Dorgan a.k.a. ‘Roberta Esposito’ Shoots Six at a Youth Hockey Game in Rhode Island. Robby Starbuck @robbystarbuck, "The Atlantic, a far left publication, has come out today with a piece about how indefensible it is to transition kids. Massive sea change. We’ve won the PR war to end this absurd abuse."

James Bacon, at Bacon's Rebellion on How to Make Sure Virginia Universities Are Governed by Unaccountable, Leftist Oligarchies Forever, elect Spamberger. 

And oh, so much more at the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 02.16.26! The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Mustang Gal and FMJRA 2.0: Still Winning up and garnering clicks at The Other McCain.

Potomac Sewage Spill Largest in History

According to the Potomac Riverkeeper Network. Atop Da Hill, Potomac wastewater spill appears to be largest in US history

A wastewater spill into the Potomac River that began last month now appears to be one of the largest in American history.

DC Water, a local water utility, said in a press release last week that part of a sewer system known as the Potomac Interceptor collapsed along the Clara Barton Parkway on Jan. 19. In that same release, the utility said it “estimates that approximately 243 million gallons of wastewater has overflowed from the collapse site.”

On Monday, DC Water said there had been a “significant overflow” Sunday amid a “high flow period,” with some bypass pumps not in service at the time.

Potomac Riverkeeper Network, a local environmental advocacy group, claimed in a Facebook post Wednesday that the sewage spilled had topped 300 million gallons.

Dean Naujoks, who holds the title of Potomac Riverkeeper, told The Baltimore Sun in an article published Tuesday that the only other spill he could compare in size had occurred in 2017 on the U.S.-Mexico border, leaking 230 million gallons.
. . .
When asked about the scale of the Washington sewage spillage, Gussie Maguire, a Maryland staff scientist with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation compared it to annual sewage spillage in Baltimore.

“The way that I put it into perspective for myself and for people before, is I compared it to annual sewage overflow amounts,” Maguire told The Hill in a Thursday interview. “You don’t really necessarily want to think about it, but there are a lot of sewage overflows going on in any particular year.”

“I follow happenings in Baltimore pretty closely, and their largest volume of sewage spilled in a year. … The largest year that they’ve had in terms of volume in the last — in recent memory is from 2018, and they had right around 260 million gallons over the course of the entire year, or 250.”

So, just an bonus year in Baltimore? 

Another way to put it into perspective is to compare it to the volume of the tidal Potomac River, into which it is being dumped. According to Grok, that volume is about  1.9 trillion gallons. Call it 2 trillion, and we see that if the sewage were evenly mixed in the estuary (it won't be, it will be concentrated near Washington DC), the entire 100 mile estuary would be about 100 ppm sewage.

FWIW, when working in the Anacostia River years ago, they made us get Hepatitis A vaccines. I'm not so sure the people working in the Potomac for the next few months shouldn't consider that. I wouldn't be eating any raw oysters out of the Potomac anytime soon, either.

Call Roto-Rooter!

That's the name and away go troubles down the drain! DC Water, DC Water Identifies Significant Rock Blockage in Potomac Interceptor, Impacting Cleaning and Repair Timeline

Overnight CCTV inspection of the Potomac Interceptor revealed the blockage inside the collapsed sewer line is far more significant, showing a large rock dam stretching approximately 30 feet downstream of the original failure. The unexpected discovery exposed the severity of the obstruction and prompted an immediate reassessment that will extend the timeline for cleaning and repairs.

It’s expected to take an estimated 4-6 weeks of additional time to get a system in place that will add more, larger bypass pumps in a new location and stabilize the site for heavy machinery to safely begin removing the large rocks and boulders inside the sewer line. While the existing bypass system has mostly contained overflows, more pumps are needed to further reduce the remaining flow getting through the pipe. A bulkhead will then be installed upstream of the failure to block the pipe and limit the wastewater reaching the collapse site.

A section of the sewer line collapsed January 19, along Clara Barton Parkway and the 495 interchange and the C & O Canal National Historical Park, causing an estimated 40 million gallons a day of wastewater to escape and enter the Potomac River.

Standard cleaning methods using industrial vacuums and jets are not sufficient to remove these large boulders. Addressing this blockage will require both larger machinery and manual labor. Workers will need to safely enter the pipe, use slings to maneuver around the rocks, and then rely on heavy equipment to extract each boulder, making removal a complex and highly specialized operation.

The large rocks blocking the pipe were likely excavated during original construction in the 1960’s and used as backfill. When the failure occurred, this material collapsed into the interceptor drawn in by the force of wastewater flow, eventually accumulating and creating this rock dam. Additional rock and soil entered the pipe as surrounding material eroded into the sinkhole created by the collapse.

To facilitate this work, DC Water will construct a new large pit upstream of the collapse to access the existing sewer line and install new, high-capacity pumps. Five more pumps—coming from Florida and Texas—will increase the pumps on site to 13 and increase capacity to more than 100 million gallons per day, allowing us to temporarily divert wastewater and keep the site as dry as possible for safe rock removal.

That sounds to me like they need to stand back and let the dirty-job guys with the big toys get to work, and then thank them profusely when they fix the sewer that take their shit away,

No Shit!

WUSA 9, No sewer overflow escaped collapsed pipe for the first time since Jan 19 sewage spill into the Potomac, DC Water says

For the first time since a 72-inch wastewater pipe burst along the Clara Barton Parkway, DC Water engineers say there are no sanitary sewer overflows escaping from the damaged section of the Potomac Interceptor since the incident happened.

DC Water says the pipe collapsed on Jan. 19. The burst led to roughly 200 to 300 million gallons of raw sewage pouring into the Potomac, according to the Potomac Riverkeepers.

Well, good. Better late than never. 

Forget It Jake, It's Baltimore

 At the Bay Journal, Baltimore seeks 16-year extension on mandated sewer work

Twenty-three years after agreeing to fix Baltimore’s leaky sewer system, city officials say they won’t be able to finish the job by 2030, as promised nine years ago.

Now, they are asking Maryland and federal regulators to extend the deadline for another 16 years — to 2046 — which they acknowledge may not be enough.

It’s been a slog. Chronic sewage overflows and leaks had long rendered Baltimore’s harbor and the streams that that flow through the city generally unfit for swimming or other human contact. In 2002, the city signed a consent decree with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) in which it pledged to end overflows — initially by 2016.

As that deadline approached, city officials asked for more time. They said they had belatedly discovered that a major cause of overflows was a seriously misaligned pipe at the Back River wastewater plant. That glitch reduced the capacity of the sewer system, officials said, especially when rain leaked in through cracks and breaks in the pipes. Sewage backed up and overflowed, including through outfalls into streams that the city had built for such emergencies.

In 2016, regulators signed off on a new 91-page agreement that gave the city until December 2030 to fix the misaligned pipe and finish overhauling its 1,400-mile sewer system.

Asking for a 16 year extension is basically admitting you have no intention of ever doing the work. 

Forget It Jake, It's Baltimore

At the Baltimore Brew, Scott administration seeks to push back the sewer consent decree deadline from 2030 to 2046, at which point Scott will no longer be in office. "Back in 2002, Baltimore entered into a consent decree with the EPA to end raw sewage overflows into local streams and the harbor. Delayed once, the city now wants another 16-year extension."

The Brandon Scott administration says Baltimore will need another 16 years to eliminate sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) that for years have periodically polluted local waterways and introduced E. coli and other contaminants into the harbor and the Chesapeake Bay. The information comes by way of a cryptic press release issued late last week by the Department of Public Works before the Labor Day weekend. The press release says that “detailed modeling” has concluded that elimination of SSOs in the sewage collection system won’t be completed until 2046. “This means the city will not meet the original 2030 deadline set for finishing the consent decree work,” the release says.

Baltimore has been under court order since 2002 to upgrade a poorly maintained sewer system that continues to release untreated wastewater through leaks and during storm surges in violation of the 1972 Clean Water Act. The 2002 decree with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) and U.S. Department of Justice called for the end of untreated sewage releases from “structured outfalls,” or engineered pipes where wastewater can escape, by January 1, 2016.

When the city failed to meet that deadline, EPA and MDE entered into a modified consent decree that extended the improvement program to December 2030. 

Spending over $930 million in sewer and treatment plant upgrades in recent years, Baltimore still maintains a dozen structured outfalls and additionally has 104 manholes known to release untreated sewage.

The manholes are found along Western Run Drive and Bonnie View Drive in northwest Baltimore; Chinquapin Park and Herring Run in northeast Baltimore; on Wilkens Avenue, Brunswick Street and Braddish Avenue in West Baltimore; along Sharp-Leadenhall and Warner streets in South Baltimore; and along Eager Street and Ashland Avenue in East Baltimore. The most active “spewing” manhole, attached to the sewer main that parallels Herring Run, discharged 3.84 million gallons of wastewater north of the Belair Road Bridge in July alone, according to DPW records.

Lovely.  

The Wednesday Wetness

WJZ News,  Sewage overflow from storms ignites health warning for Dundalk waterways. When it rains, shit pours. 

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Country Girl in Carhartts up on time and under budget.

Oh, Deer!

WAMU, Human, bird, or dog waste? Scientists parsing poop to aid D.C.’s forgotten river, the Anacostia.

About 40 million people in the U.S. live in a community with a combined sewer system, where wastewater and stormwater flow through the same pipes. After heavy rains, when pipe capacities are reached, the overflow sends raw wastewater into the rivers instead of to a treatment plant. Federal regulations, including sections of the Clean Water Act, require municipalities such as Washington to reduce at least 85% of this pollution or face steep fines.

To get into compliance, Washington launched a $2.6 billion infrastructure project in 2011. DC Water’s Clean Rivers Project will eventually build multiple miles-long underground storage basins to capture stormwater and wastewater and pump it to treatment plants once heavy rains have subsided.

The Anacostia tunnel is the first of these storage basins to be completed. It can collect 190 million gallons of bacteria-laden wastewater for later treatment, said Moussa Wone, vice president of the Clean Rivers Project.

Climate change is causing more intense rainstorms in Washington, so even after construction is complete in 2030, Wone said, untreated stormwater will still be discharged into the river, though much less frequently. “On the Anacostia, we’re going to be reducing the frequency of overflows from 82 to two in an average year,” Wone said.

But while the Anacostia sewershed covers 176 square miles, he noted, only 17% is in Washington. “The other 83% is outside the District,” Wone said. “We can do our part, but everybody else has to do their part also.” Upstream in Maryland’s Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, miles of sewer lines are in the process of being upgraded to divert raw sewage to a treatment plant instead of the river.

The data shows that poop is a problem for river health — but knowing what kind of poop it is matters. Scientists monitor E. coli to indicate the presence of feces in river water, but since the bacteria live in the guts of most warm-blooded animals, the source is difficult to determine.

“Is it human feces? Or is it deer? Is it gulls? Is it dogs?” said Amy Sapkota, a professor of environmental and occupational health at the University of Maryland.

Bacterial levels can fluctuate across the river even without rainstorms. An Anacostia Riverkeeper report found that in 2023 just three of nine sites sampled along the Washington portion of the watershed had consistently low E. coli levels throughout the summer season.

Sapkota is heading a new bacterial monitoring program measuring the amount of E. coli that different animal species deposit along the river. The team uses microbial source tracking to analyze samples of river water taken from different locations each month by volunteers. The molecular approach enables scientists to target specific gene sequences associated with fecal bacteria and determine whether the bacteria come from humans or wildlife. Microbial source tracking also measures fecal pollution levels by source.

“We can quantify the levels of different bacterial targets that may be coming from a human fecal source or an animal fecal source,” Sapkota said. Her team expects to have preliminary results this year.

The health risk to humans from river water will never be zero, but Sapkota said, based on her team’s research, smart city planning and retooled infrastructure could lessen the level of harmful bacteria in the water.

“Let’s say that we’re finding that actually there’s a lot of deer fecal signatures in our results,” Sapkota said. “Maybe this points to the fact that we need more green buffers along the river that can help prevent fecal contaminants from wildlife from entering the river during stormwater events.”

So, deer aren't going to walk (or jump fences) into the green buffers, eat it and poop there? I don't think you understand deer. 

Forget It Jake, It's Baltimore

Inside Climate News, As Baltimore’s Sewer System Buckles Under Extreme Weather, City Refuses to Help Residents With Cleanup Efforts. Actually, it's been a pretty dry year.

A sewage cleanup program meant to assist Baltimore residents with backups in their homes has been in limbo for more than a year because of a deadlock between city authorities, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE).

The haggling over the future scope of the cleanup program has left Baltimoreans in the lurch and angered advocates who accuse city officials of exaggerating the cleanup costs and misleading elected officials.

Baltimore City runs two cleanup programs aimed at providing relief to homeowners, tenants and property managers dealing with sewage backup entering their homes due to wet weather conditions and clogged public pipes.

The programs resulted from a 2017 modified consent decree between Baltimore City, the EPA and MDE, which required the city to set aside $2 million a year to help residents with the costs of sewage cleanup. The Expedited Reimbursement Program covers the cost of property cleanup caused by heavy rain and pipe capacity issues, and the Sewage Onsite Support (SOS) program, launched in 2021, directly pays third-party vendors to clean and disinfect homes when overflowing sewer pipes cause sewage to flow backward and enter homes through toilets and sinks.

Sewage backups are a recurring and expensive problem for a large number of Baltimore residents. A 2021 report by the Department of Public Works estimated at least 8,860 sewage backups in the city between 2018 and 2021 caused by problems in the city-owned sewage pipes.

The current deadlock ensued when, in 2022, the city submitted a plan to the EPA and the MDE proposing to continue only the SOS program on a long-term basis with benefits limited to backups caused by storm-related flooding. Advocates want the city to include both dry and wet weather events in its scope, including backups caused by blockages and cracks in pipes, a common and pervasive problem because of decades of neglect and under-investment in the city’s sewage system.

In May 2023, the EPA approved the city’s proposal to continue with the SOS program but required that the $2 million in cleanup assistance must include all backups, including those resulting from clogged and cracked sewage lines. “The SOS program must address all backups that originate in the sewer mainline,” the agency said in its letter.

Quoting 2021 data, the EPA letter estimated an average of 4,400 annual backups reported between 2017 and 2021. Because of the limited scope of the city’s cleanup program, the letter said, less than 20 percent of backups qualified for the SOS program, which spent only $21,019 in assistance from 2018 to 2022.

In view of the city’s miniscule spending, the EPA concluded that Baltimore could easily cover additional claims by including in its scope those backups that occur in all types of weather and from blockages in the city-owned pipes.

But DPW refused to heed the EPA’s order and has since maintained that expanding cleanup benefits went beyond requirements of the modified consent decree, leaving the agencies locked in a dispute resolution process with no end in sight.

They just had to throw in the climate nonsense. The fact is, Baltimore's sewer system is a mess a lot of it is old and decaying, and because the government of Baltimore simply doesn't want to pay for upgrading it, and paying for the consequences. They keep hoping the Federal government will step in a do it for them, and they're probably right to expect that in the long run. Meanwhile, Baltimore residents in certain areas will just have to put up the sewers backing up in their houses, and the Baltimore government to be chintzy with their aid. You get what you vote for. 

But they did find money for some "floating wetlands" in Baltimore Harbor, Bay Journal, Baltimore harbor gains “floating wetlands” and a hint of its marshy past. Actually, there's a surprising amount of wetlands near Baltimore. People just don't go there.

Forget It Jake, It's Baltimore

 Annapolis Capital Gazette, Baltimore City Council asks DPW to pay up for home sewage overflows

Baltimore City Council members challenged the city’s refusal to pay for more sewage backups into residents’ homes during a hearing Monday, some arguing the city is hiding behind an “equity” argument as it challenges an order from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to do so.

The chiding came during a budget hearing for Baltimore’s Department of Public Works. Council members questioned how the department has been spending the $2 million it budgets annually to assist residents with cleaning up sewage backups. Currently, the city sends cleanup crews to Baltimore residents’ homes — or reimburses cleanup costs — only if a backup was caused by wet weather.

If a backup occurs due to some other kind of blockage during dry weather, such as a clogged or broken pipe, residents must handle the cleanup themselves. Those backups can be caused by residents dumping the wrong materials down their drains, such as grease or wipes, but also can occur for other reasons, like roots growing into a sewer line and causing a breakage.

Richard Luna, deputy director of the department, told the council Monday that $0 was paid in reimbursements in fiscal year 2023 despite residents submitting 27 applications. That same year, $77,000 was spent for the city to clean 11 homes. In fiscal year 2024, 33 residents applied for reimbursements, but only three have received funds, totaling about $14,800. An additional $43,700 was spent to clean four properties.

“There’s a $2 million allocation for that program, and what we’ve seen year-over-year is a very small amount of, number of households approved for this initiative,” Councilman Kristerfer Burnett said in response. “That’s hard to grasp considering we’ve had thousands of backups per year.”

Luna said the definition of a “qualified event” is very narrow. “That’s why you do see the numbers,” he said.

The EPA — which oversees Baltimore’s management of its troubled sewer system under a court-monitored consent decree — has called on the city to expand the number of backups it assists with, a directive the city has challenged. In May 2023, the agency issued an order calling on Baltimore to also cover certain dry-weather events, including backups that occur in sewer mainlines, which are managed by the city. The Maryland Department of the Environment agreed with the federal agency’s determination.

In a July 2023 letter to the agency, Baltimore argued it should not have to expand the program and took issue with the EPA’s reasoning, calling it “inconsistent” with the consent decree.

So they have a couple of million bucks set aside in their budget to help people whose houses are flooded with shit, and they only manage to use a fraction of that. I'd ask where the rest of the money goes, but then, it's Baltimore, so it probably went down a sewer.  

Forget It Jake, It's Baltimore

If you thought Baltimore would be a shitty place to be in jail, you were right. Balmer Sun, People detained in Baltimore jail were without running water for days, public defenders say: ‘Inhumane, unsafe’

A Baltimore detention facility was without running water and functioning toilets for days this week, according to the Office of the Public Defender, which alleges the conditions were unconstitutional.

While the water was out at the Maryland Reception Diagnostic and Classification Center in Baltimore, people were unable to clean themselves and were given “minimal” bottles of water, the office said Friday. In some instances, people were forced to “remain in cells with unflushed excrement for days,” a news release said.

“At times, people were brought to portable toilets while remaining handcuffed so they could not wipe or wash themselves; at other times, they were provided with garbage bags to use as toilets in their cells,” the Office of the Public Defender said in a news release.

Eleven petitions were filed by public defenders on Friday seeking the release of people incarcerated at the facility while awaiting trial. In one provided by the Office of the Public Defender, attorneys describe “deplorable conditions” and argue that the jail is violating detainees’ rights to due process and to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.

“When the state holds someone in custody, the conditions must comply with basic human rights standards — and functional plumbing is among the most basic of those obligations,” the state’s public defender, Natasha M. Dartigue, said in the news release. “Depriving people of rudimentary health and hygiene measures is inhumane, unsafe, and well beyond what our society should tolerate.”

Seems to me they should be able to fix a water source issue in a matter of hours. We do for our water company, and we have far less resources than Baltimore. 

On the other hand, if you can't stand the smell, try to stay out of jail. 

Forget It Jake, It's Baltimore

When it rains, shit pours. Capital News Service, Months after costly civil lawsuit settlement, Baltimore City’s rivers still polluting

In one of his most viral videos to date, with over three million views on Instagram and close to a million views on TikTok, Baltimore crabber and social media influencer Luke McFadden addresses the camera while standing on his boat in the Chesapeake Bay.

“Every time it rains in Maryland, at least where I’m at, we have garbage like this tire that washes down from places like the Conowingo Dam,” McFadden says.

Using his reach pole, he hoists a massive rubber tire from the water and brings it aboard.

“In addition to the trash, we get this lovely brown, foamy slime on the top, which happens to be raw sewage that dumps out from the Baltimore City wastewater treatment plants,” he says.

McFadden then gestures toward the water, where there is indeed a dark layer of sludge instead of a pale blue hue that most would expect.

“The issue we have here in the Chesapeake Bay is a water quality issue,” he says. “You can catch and throw back as many of whatever it is you want, but nothing is gonna live in a stagnant puddle — not one that gets sewage dumped in it every time it rains.”

Posted to Instagram and TikTok just two months after Baltimore City settled a $4.75 million lawsuit for violations at each of its two wastewater treatment plants, the Jan. 21 video combined for over 4500 comments on both platforms.

“Your city tax dollars at work,” one comment read.

“It does stink at the harbor when it rains,” said another.

But the reality is, sewage is supposed to enter the Chesapeake Bay through the Back and Patapsco Rivers only after it’s been properly treated by the plants which happen to be the largest in Maryland.

And as for “raw sewage,” experts say that’s not exactly the case.

“That’s kind of a misconception – it’s still sewage, but it’s partially treated a lot of times because there is such an influx of rain,” Desiree Greaver, project manager for the Back River Restoration Committee (BRRC), told Capital News Service. “We have these rain events where there’s tons of rain, and the plant can’t handle it so they’ll skip certain steps.”

At this point, one must simply conclude that in Baltimore, graft and corruption are much more important to the local politicians than pollution.

Oregon, My Oregon

Post Millennial, Portland sees increase in diseases spread by human waste

Multnomah County is encouraging residents to watch their hygiene after a boost in shigella cases was observed in Old Town Portland.

Shigella is a bacteria that spreads via fecal matter, and creates symptoms that include fever, stomach cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea. It can last anywhere from three to 10 days.

“Shigella spreads when one person’s infected poop gets into another person’s mouth through food or water, from objects or surfaces with shigella bacteria on them, or during sex,” Multnomah County said, according to KOIN 6. “Shigella spreads very easily. Even a very small amount is enough to make someone sick.”

Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties have reported 45 cases of the bacteria in December, with nine different strains observed in the Portland metro area since October.

The Portland Police Bureau’s Central Bike Squad also joined in on the calls for awareness, making a post about hygiene on Instagram on Dec. 22.

Previously, Multnomah County discovered a "cluster" of drug-resistant shigella cases in November, with 16 cases found in the Portland metro area since September.

A total of 218 cases have been reported in 2023, with the county saying that the majority of strains penetrate the region by way of international travelers and “social-sexual networks.”

“Local disease patterns suggest that fecal-oral spread through sexual contact may account for between half and more than two thirds of all cases without international travel. The rest are typically attributed to other types of person-to-person spread including outbreaks among populations with lack of hygiene, shelter, and sanitation, and among people who use illicit substances,” county officials explained to KOIN 6 News.

The county added that “during 2020 a single strain of Shigella caused multiple clusters among men who have sex with men, persons experiencing homelessness, as well as causing outbreaks at a food cart, and separately, a healthcare facility. Multnomah County epidemiology immediately identified these shifts into defined outbreaks and were successful in stopping illness spread from the food cart as well as within the healthcare facility.”

Civilization was sure was nice while it lasted. 

Forget It Jake, It's Baltimore

The BaltimoreBrew, Tired of stormwater lapping at their front door, Baltimore residents join an environmental lawsuit

Visiting with next-door neighbors Pamela Luallen-Williams and Mary Jackson is like finding the multimedia mother lode of data on urban flooding in Baltimore.

The women can produce photos and videos of their block of 35th Street, just off Hillen Road, showing how it looks when heavy rains transform the roadway into a raging river, with water surging over car door handles.

They’ve got years of emails with city officials, who shrugged off these events as “an act of god,” and correspondence with insurance companies, who told them that because they’re not in a flood zone, it wasn’t “a flood.”

What’s more, they’ve got vivid descriptions of what it’s like when the water rapidly rises, engulfing and damaging their parked cars, trucks and, once, the front yard fence when a floating car drifted into it.

“How about that time when Mary’s son had to rescue you from your truck?” Luallen-Williams said to her husband, Warren Williams. “They had to throw you a rope!”

“Yes, I had to get out through the window, and I don’t know how I fit,” recalled Williams, reminding his wife of some of the other rescues, like the time emergency crews had to pluck the driver and passengers out of a submerged MTA bus.

One more thing these women say they have:

Evidence of how stormwater flooding is becoming more frequent and severe in their Ednor Gardens-Lakeside neighborhood, which sits on top of Tiffany Run, an underground stream.

“We had water in the street going back decades,” said Luallen-Williams, whose family acquired the property in 1970.

“But,” she stresses, “it never came up to your front door.”

That began to happen in 1998. Floodwaters have since crept closer to their houses to the point where now, a bad storm will not only fill the basement with water, but on occasion reach up to the first floor as well.

“This,” Luallen-Williams said, standing in her living room and pointing down, “is the new floor we had to put in.”

A freezer, a washer, a dryer, a television, her furnace, clothing and other possessions have been ruined by the overflows of water and, they are sorry to say, by sewage.

“We’ve had poop,” she said grimly, adding that people living on nearby streets, like Alameda Circle, have also begun experiencing more flooding and backups lately. “It’s definitely getting worse.”

Unlike tidal flooding and storm tides, storm water flooding is entirely a problem of a municipal government, a failing of planning adequate drainage, and/or allowing changes in the existing drainage in such a way that increases it's impact. 

Forget It Jake, It's Baltimore

Patapsco Waste Water Treatment Plant

Baltimore Sun, Inspection shows continuing failures at Baltimore’s Patapsco wastewater plant as Maryland mulls another takeover

A May inspection of Baltimore’s Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant showed continuing failures to properly treat and dispose of solid waste, preventing the plant from filtering out pollutants to a level to be expected after millions of dollars of investments at the facility in recent years.

In a report dated May 18-21, the Maryland Department of the Environment laid out 18 steps that must be taken to bring the Wagner’s Point plant into compliance with environmental permits and regulations.

If that doesn’t happen quickly, department officials have already said the state may soon take over the second of Baltimore’s large wastewater plants. The Maryland Environmental Service, a quasi-state agency, took over operations of the Back River Wastewater Treatment plant in Dundalk in March.

Amid the ongoing problems at both plants, Blue Water Baltimore and the Chesapeake Legal Alliance said Thursday they plan to ask a federal judge to issue a temporary injunction compelling Baltimore, which owns both plants, to address the problems. The groups have an ongoing lawsuit, filed under the federal Clean Water Act, against the city in federal court.

At this point, why would Baltimore try to clean up its act, when it can do nothing, and have the State of Maryland assume to problem? 

Poop on the Bay News

It was 22-24 F out all day, and blowing 20+ kts out of the the north. A terrible day to try to walk on the beach. so I looked at the Bay news feed for inspiration, and low and behold, at Chesapeake Bay Mag, Prehistoric Fossilized Poop Found at Calvert Cliffs.

The Calvert Marine Museum is studying a surprising aspect of the fossil record: prehistoric poop left behind more than eight million years ago along Calvert Cliffs in southern Maryland.

The findings just published in an international paleontology journal are unprecedented—but also a little stomach-turning. Put down your sandwich before you read on…

Paleontologists from Calvert Marine Museum (CMM) and the University of Pisa in Italy have together studied two key findings from the Miocene epoch.

First is the fossilized skull of a stargazer fish that was probably scavenged by worms on the ocean floor after the fish died. It appears that while feeding, the worms left behind tiny fecal pellets known as micro-coprolites. According to CMM, this is “the first skull known in the fossil record to be infilled with feces.”

Stargazer skull with microcoprolites

The second finding is a set of prehistoric crocodile droppings, larger coprolites. These had been tunneled into by some kind of unidentified poop-eating animal on the ocean floor. While the study authors don’t know exactly which animal was feeding on the feces, they note that this practice helped recycle nutrients present in the poop. If this recycling hadn’t been taking place, “the ocean floor would have been buried deep in droppings,” CMM notes.

How did these feces, created between eight and 18 million years ago, survive to be found in modern southern Maryland? They were preserved in sediments laid down over millions of years on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean when it covered this area. The fossils have been found by amateur and professional paleontologists in and around Calvert Cliffs. Don’t worry, the marine museum says these fossils don’t have that distinctive fecal odor; Mineral replacement has removed the organic materials that produce such a smell.

CMM is leaning into these important recent discoveries with a new celebration: Universal Coprolite Day, which will be marked on Feb. 22 starting in 2022 and every year going forward. The marine museum says in its announcement, “Universal Coprolite day is recognized to celebrate coprolites wherever they may form in the universe.”

On Sunday, Feb. 20, 2022, CMM will place activities and learning stations throughout the museum. Their Paleontology Collection has a wide range of coprolites, including shark and fish-bitten coprolites, a coprolite preserving the impression of a baby turtle shell, and partially-eaten coprolites, along with the recently discovered coprolite-filled skull mentioned above.

I am aware that there are fossil poops possible on our beach, but it's not something I've ever collected a lot of. To me, they look too much like the random concretions also found. I did stumble on one while we were excavating a whale skull up the beach a ways with folk from the museum, and other volunteers. Some one else took it, though. I do have a piece of what I think is a shark coprolite, though.

Shit Don't Flow Uphill

Bay Journal, Major pollution violations found at Maryland’s two largest sewage treatment plant

Following a watchdog group’s discovery of high bacteria levels in wastewater coming from one of the city’s two sewage treatment plants, an inspector for the Maryland Department of the Environment has found “numerous deficiencies and violations” at both facilities.


In visits to the city’s Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant in May and to the Back River plant in June, the MDE inspector found operational and maintenance problems, with key treatment equipment malfunctioning or out of order, staffing shortages and botched sampling for toxic contaminants in the wastewater.

The laundry list of problems uncovered at Maryland’s two largest wastewater plants threatens Bay restoration efforts, environmentalists warn. It also raises questions, they say, about the diligence of state regulators in ensuring compliance with pollution limits.

City public works officials are scheduled to meet Friday with state regulators following an Aug. 23 letter from the MDE demanding immediate corrective actions and warning the city that it faces fines of up to $10,000 per day and possible legal action by the state attorney general.

“We’re going to hold [the Department of Public Works] accountable,” MDE Secretary Ben Grumbles said in an interview. “They have a lot of explaining to do.”

In response to press queries, a spokesman released a short statement from Public Works Director Jason Mitchell. He said that his staff “has developed a strategy to get back into compliance and will be providing a timeline for compliance to MDE.”

Yep, it happens after nearly every rain. Baltimore leaks sewage into the Bay. 

I would just like to point this out to Sykes.1, who in response to my concern about sewage over pharmaceuticals in waste water in I Worry More About the Shit , commented:

These are not leaky sewers. All the sewage flowing towards Chesapeake Bay is treated first to remove various contaminants, mainly organic matter, nutrients, and pathogens. That has been the case since the 70's.

But, many pharmaceuticals pass right through the current treatment processes. This has been know for 30 years or more. Yet no solution to the problem has been put forward.

PS. Almost all the nitrogen and phosphorus entering the bay comes from surface runoff from livestock and poultry operations, not from treated sewage.

No, we haven't adequately controlled the influx of nutrients from sewage. The problems in Baltimore are long-standing and asserting it won't make it true.

I Worry More About the Shit

You can tell when a press release goes out on something, when several articles on the same subject appear in the Bay news feed on the same day: Nature World News, Worrying Amounts of Drug Traces Leaked by Sewage Pipes Found in Chesapeake Bay, Greenwire, Leaky sewer lines dump pharmaceuticals into Chesapeake Bay Faulty and Gizmodo, The Chesapeake Bay Is Awash in Drugs. Even Insty saw it! From Gizmodo:

The study, conducted by scientists with the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology on Wednesday, found that tens of thousands of doses of pharmaceuticals are flowing into the bay every year. They include everything from over-the-counter pain medicine to prescription antidepressants

For the study, the researchers sampled water from six different sites in one Baltimore watershed every week for one year. They then sent the samples to a chemist in Sweden to look for 92 pharmaceutical chemical compounds from eight different medications prescribed for infections, mood disorders, and other ailments. The compounds fell into 9 common classes of drugs: adrenergics (prescribed for asthma and other cardiovascular and respiratory issues), antibiotics, antidepressants, antiepileptics, antifungals, antihypertensives, urologicals, and painkillers separated into two categories, non-opioid and opioid analgesics. The authors found that all of these were present in varying degrees.

The highest concentrations they found were of non-opioid analgesics like Tylenol, Advil, and Aleve. Based on their samples, the researchers estimated that 33 pounds (15 kilograms) of these drugs enter the Chesapeake Bay from the Gwynns Falls watershed every year. That’s the equivalent of 30,000 tablets of acetaminophen.

But the most commonly found drug in their samples were antibiotics, especially trimethoprim, which is prescribed for kidney infections and urinary tract infections.

“We found [trimethoprim] in 137 out of 371 total samples,” Megan Fork, a postdoctoral research associate at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies who led the study, said. “We think this is because people pop a Tylenol so often when they have a headache, so the amount of doses people use is so much higher ... but when people take the antibiotics, which is less often, less of it can be removed by wastewater treatment plants.”

Lots of previous research has shown that both legal and illicit drugs enter waterways through wastewater treatment plants. When we consume drugs, whatever we do not metabolize passes into our pee, and sewage treatment plants aren’t designed to filter those trace amounts of drugs out.

This study was different, though: None of the sites that the researchers sampled had any direct wastewater from sewage treatment plants coming into them. They must have entered through a different source.

The authors can’t be completely sure exactly how the drugs got into the water stream. AJ Reisinger, an ecologist at the University of Florida who worked on the study, said some of the drugs could have gotten dumped into sinks or storm drains. Some could have also made it to the bay by people merely tossing away drugs in the street.

“People shouldn’t do this for environmental reasons, but people probably do,” he said.

Yet by far the most likely source of this pollution, Reisinger said, is the aging sewage system.

“We think the most likely source is from leaky sewage infrastructure,” he said. “Just because there’s not any wastewater effluent from treatment plants doesn’t mean there’s not sewage directly coming in from broken pipes.”

There's a saying in toxicity, going back to Paracelsus, who said "the dose makes the poison." And, like Baltimore, he was concerned with poisons (like arsenic and mercury) being used as medicines. These drugs are being diluted extensively by natural runoff, and other human inputs, so the dose is a tiny fraction of the dose necessary for pharmaceutical effects, at least in humans, and probably in a majority of other potential target organisms too. The fact that they can measure them at all is a testament to our advanced analytical methods, and not proof that they constitute an existential threat to the health of the Chesapeake Bay. Meanwhile, we know the nutrients and pathogens in sewage constitute two of the most severe threats to the Bay.

Insty is right,  WE NEED BETTER SEWAGE TREATMENT AND HANDLING, I GUESS. Yep, for sure. It's Baltimore's shit, and they should be responsible for cleaning it up.