Consent Decree— Federal Mandates and What They Mean to You

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Consent Decree—Federal Mandates and What They Mean to You
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Consent Decree—Federal Mandates and What They Mean to You

Like most large cities in the nation, Baltimore City faces the challenges of dealing with an aging infrastructure. In 2002, we entered into a consent decree, or agreement, with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Maryland Department of the Environment to inspect, identify, and improve the entire sanitary sewer system. This agreement focuses primarily on the elimination of sewage overflows.
Although we have achieved countless milestones on schedule and have invested over $500 million on system improvements since 2002, there is still a lot more work ahead.

What does this all mean to the average Baltimore City resident? The Consent Decree provides numerous benefits to all Baltimoreans, including:
  • Cleaner streams and waterways.

  • A more robust and reliable infrastructure.

  • More favorable and stable water and sewer rates.

  • A more welcoming environment for industries that depend on reliable urban infrastructure.
Achievements since 2002:

  • Eliminated 60 engineered sewage overflow structures.

  • Improved operations and maintenance for the sanitary sewer system.

  • Completed 39 consent decree projects on schedule, at a cost of over $300 million.

  • Upgraded the Jones Falls Sewage Pumping Station from 35 to 55 million gallons per day.

  • Constructed the 20 million gallon per day Stony Run wet weather sewage pumping station.

  • Separated the Forest Park and Walbrook combined sewer systems.

  • Upgraded the City's GIS and mapping database.

  • Reduced wet-weather related sewage overflows citywide.
For more information, call 311 or email publicworks@cleanwaterbaltimore.org. 		Consent Decree-Mandates
Factsheet
Consent Decree—Federal Mandates and What They Mean to You



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