Question 1: How much has Baltimore spent to meet its agreement with the state?

 

The city has spent $370 million upgrading its two wastewater treatment plants to get up to the standards set by the Maryland Department of the Environment. 

 

(Not all of that is from this year - they’re including some older upgrades that help them meet the terms of the Consent Decree.)

 

That includes $40 million to hire new staff and $6 million to give existing staff raises. They’re also upgrading computer screens, sensors, pumps, and more.

 

The spending’s not done yet. They have until June 2027 to finish the upgrades. But the city says almost all of the 70 goals set by the state have already been met.

 

Question 2: What are some of the reasons the expense has reached that amount?

 

In the past two years, wastewater consultants have cost $52 million. That’s more than a quarter of consultant spending for the entire city.

 

We looked at the 50 largest consulting fees in the city checkbook in the last two years. 42 of them were for treating dirty water. 

 

They’re not doing the actual upgrades, they’re just helping the city plan out its construction project.

 

The two biggest vendors are PROSTART and AECOM Technical Services.

 

We’ve put in an open records request to find out how much these companies are getting paid by the hour. In other cities, we’ve seen AECOM employees earning up to $255 an hour from taxpayers.

 

Question 3: Didn’t Baltimore just spend a ton of money upgrading these facilities a few years ago?

 

Yes. The city completed an $835 million upgrade to its wastewater plants in 2020 and a separate $430 million upgrade in 2021.

 

This issue dates back to 2002, when the federal government gave Baltimore a Consent Decree to get them to meet the terms of the Clean Water Act. That was updated in 2017 when Baltimore failed to meet the terms: Sewage pipes were getting backed up when it rained too heavily, even leaking into stores and houses.

 

Then the state issued its own Consent Decree in 2021 after finding dangerous levels of bacteria flowing into the Chesapeake Bay.

 

In total we’re talking about $1.6 billion in upgrades since 2020 and counting. The budget for the entire city this year is $4.2 billion.