"Environmental activists and advocates slammed the decision, citing an expansion directive from federal and state regulators. A 2019 study found that bacteria, viruses and parasites are particularly harmful when residents are forced to undertake their own cleanups."

"Baltimore City has refused to comply with a directive from state and federal environmental regulators that it expand the scope of a program that helps residents clean up after sewage backs up into their homes.

Efforts to help residents cope with sewage backups go back to a consent decree the city signed in 2002 with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Maryland Department of the Environment after Baltimore was found to have violated the Clean Water Act by discharging sewage into rivers and the Chesapeake Bay.

The city’s failure to stem those sewage discharges by 2016, coupled with a large number of backups into people’s homes around the same time, led to the modified consent decree in 2017, which required Baltimore City to set aside $2 million to assist homeowners with cleanup costs related to sewage backups into their homes and basements."

Aman Azhar reports for Inside Climate News July 25, 2023. [2]