The creatures that inhabit Baltimore’s Jones Falls are more than familiar with the putrid overflows that arrive with even moderate rains. But last Thursday, on what should have been an off day for sewer discharges, a whopping 1.2 million gallons entered the waterway thanks to a gunky, man-made buildup in a sewer line running below Station North.
The cause? A “fatberg,” as the Baltimore City Department of Public Works dubbed it in a release. The city says “a massive plug of grease” – also comprising congealed fats and oils, caked-on wet wipes and other solids – was blocking 85 percent of a 24-inch sewer main between Penn Station and the 1700 block of N. Charles Street.
As a result, our untreated waste built up in the pipe for who-knows-how-long, causing an unfathomable amount of poop, pee and more to flow out into the Jones Falls at a structured outfall at N. Charles and W. Lanvale Streets. It was the second such overflow caused by the fatberg in two weeks; another occurred on Sept. 14, when 141,000 gallons of sewage leaked in at the same outfall.
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