Milky-white discharge – possible sewage leak – flowing into Stony Run today
The pipe break or leak, down the hill from Tudor Arms Avenue near the Wyman Park Apartments, is sending the substance into a tributary of the Jones Falls
Above: Milky white discharge pools below a pipe before spilling over into Baltimore’s Stony Run. (Fern Shen)
Baltimore’s Stony Run stream was streaked with white today as a pipe discharged a substance that was chalk colored and cloudy, often a sign of a sewage leak.
The location was just down the hill from Tudor Arms Avenue, roughly near the 39th Street intersection, just north of the Lower Wyman Park Field where people take their dogs.
Walking down the dirt path from Tudor Arms, the little stream that usually runs clear is today bright white.
The white substance emerges from a pipe coming out of the stream bank and dumps into the waterway, a tributary of the Jones Falls and, ultimately, Chesapeake Bay.
The headwaters of this stream is a larger pipe that comes out of the hill below Tudor Arms Avenue and the Wyman Park Apartments.
Below this pipe today was a large bright-white pool of water.
Polluted discharge flows down the hill from Tudor Arms Avenue through the woods (ABOVE) and through a pipe under the path, dumping (BELOW) into Stony Run. (Fern Shen)
MDE Investigating
The Brew reported the leak to the Baltimore Department of Public Works (DPW) and the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE).
“I shared it with our Water and Science Administration compliance program,” MDE spokesman Jay Apperson replied quickly, in an email. “They are treating it as a complaint received and will investigate.”
No reply yet from DPW.
UPDATE: DPW responded after publication to say they are looking into the matter and will reply when they have more information.
We also shared the information with a staffer at Blue Water Baltimore, who said she would submit a 311 complaint about the incident to the city.
The watchdog nonprofit, which monitors water quality in the region, had a mixed report on Stony Run.
“The last time we sampled Stony Run was on July 14, and the bacteria level was low (41, whereas the contact limit is 130),” BWB’s Baltimore Habrbor Waterkeeper Alice Volpitta said in a text message.
“In general, our long-term trends analyses tell us that nitrogen concentrations are slightly declining, and water temperatures are slightly cooler over the past 13 years at this site (both good things),” Volpitta continued. “But we still have a long way to go, and the pressures of polluted stormwater, development, and sewage overflows continue to degrade the stream.”