Billing, Other Issues With County Water System Discovered

BALTIMORE COUNTY, MD — The county has released a new report following a comprehensive review of the processes that guide the water delivery system that serves both Baltimore County and Baltimore City residents.

“This report is a critical and long overdue step towards improving how our jurisdictions can better work in partnership to modernize our shared water system,” Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski said.

The study offered a comprehensive review of the shared water system’s existing governance structure, operations and procedures. The report also identified a number of challenges, including consistent issues with customer billing, limited regional coordination and systematic limitations for long-term planning and improvements.

The study concluded the jurisdictions should convene a diverse stakeholder group to explore additional regional solutions, including potential alternative governance structures, in order to help standardize high quality water services across the region, improve the overall customer experience and lower shared costs through economies of scale.

Residents of both jurisdictions currently receive water through a system managed by the Baltimore City Department of Public Works under an agreement that dates back to 1972. Under the agreement that governs the shared sewer system, Baltimore City bills all customers for water use. Each jurisdiction bills its own residents for sewer charges and other related charges.

Given the age of the agreements, officials in both jurisdictions led the effort to conduct this study to determine whether changes are needed to modernize system management in order to improve customer service.