Baltimore city officials are warning that budget cuts may force them to scale back efforts to keep trash out of local streams and the harbor.
In today's Baltimore Sun, City Hall reporter Julie Scharper quotes Public Works Director David E. Scott saying that under the pared-down preliminary budget recently presented by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, his department would stop maintaining nets and booms across local streams -- like the one pictured above --that keep trash out of the harbor. The department also would have to cut back on the frequency with which it cleans out storm drains, sweeps streets and picks up bulk trash, he said.
Scott told the Board of Estimates that the administration is considering proposing a storm-water charge to help pay for cleaning and maintaining the city's waterways. According to the story, the public works director said many municipalities levy such a fee. That may be true elsewhere, but not in Maryland, where only a handfull of counties and municipalities have taken the plunge. A bill in Annapolis to require all the state's localities to charge such fees - earmarked for keeping local waterways clean - appears to be bottled up in committee.
Cutting back on efforts to keep debris out of the harbor could get the city in hot water. The Environmental Protection Agency has declared the harbor "impaired" (aka polluted) by trash, and the city is expected to come up with a plan for ridding its waterways of unsightly and unhealthy litter.
City taxpayers are encouraged to voice their opinions about these and other proposed budget cuts at a meeting April 7. The mayor has said she'll unveil an alternative budget on April 12 that proposes to shrink the cutbacks with $50 million in new taxes and fees - presumably including the storm-water charge.