Baltimore residents demand action after costly sewage backups

Residents in Baltimore’s Hampden community are banding together after dealing with recent sewage backups in their homes.

After heavy snow in January, sewer lines in the neighborhood were overwhelmed, spilling water, waste and other materials into their basements, tubs and toilets, the residents said.

“We had to pump hundreds of gallons of raw sewage out of our basement,” said Hampden resident Pamela Potter-Hennessey. “We were hit with this early in the morning, and then it lasted a day and a half.”

Weeks later, other neighbors experienced similar issues.

On Thursday, attorney Thiru Vignarajah, who is representing the group of neighbors who live on Elm and Union avenues, filed a letter to the Baltimore City Department of Public Works requesting reimbursement with documentation of recent backups. Vignarajah said the damages cost residents thousands.

They’re seeking it through the Expedited Reimbursement Program, which offers up to $5,000. The city’s website says the program is available for damage caused by wet weather events that is “recorded within a 24-hour period.”

At a press conference, Vignarajah said the reimbursement program should be expanded because “two-thirds of these sewage backups happen when there is no rain.”

Aging infrastructure

The group of Hampden residents said this has been an issue for years due to aging sewage infrastructure.

“They’re here because they want to draw attention to a systemic citywide problem that has been resulting in sewage water ending up in residents’ basements for decades,” Vignarajah said.

In a statement to WJZ, the city’s Department of Public Works said it understands the concerns raised by residents and takes reports of basement backups seriously. The city has invested nearly $2 billion in wastewater system improvements since 2002 to reduce sewer overflows, the DPW said.

The DPW statement said that reimbursement claims that fall outside of existing programs, including sewage backups during dry-weather events, can be submitted to the City Law Department for review through the standard claims process.

Vignarajah said the residents are also questioning whether development in Hampden is putting a strain on aging infrastructure. This is something the city needs to fix, he said, but residents want answers from developers, too.

“They, too, need to, at least, answer whether they have put a strain on a system that was already broken when it was built,” he said.

WJZ is a media partner of The Baltimore Banner. See the original story.