"Peak flows in Anne Arundel County could trigger more sewage overflows"
"A portion of Baltimore’s suburbs, including the region’s busy airport, has been put under a growth moratorium to control the threat of more wet-weather sewage overflows into the Patapsco River. The stoppage could potentially last for years.
Anne Arundel County’s public works department announced the immediate development cutoff Feb. 26, saying that peak wastewater flows in the northwestern portion of the county have exceeded the capacity of the sewer network to handle them.
Wastewater from that area travels through a sewer line maintained by neighboring Baltimore County before being treated at the Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant in south Baltimore city.
While the sewer lines can handle average daily wastewater flows, county officials said rainfall leaking into the aging, cracked pipes cause the peak flows to exceed limits set under an agreement Anne Arundel has with its neighboring jurisdictions. Anne Arundel has been piping wastewater to the city from that area since 1939, forging a pact in 1976 to share sewer and pumping station capacity with Baltimore and Howard counties."
Timothy B. Wheeler reports for the Bay Journal March 6, 2026.
