Baltimore, MD — Last night, the Baltimore Regional Water Governance Model Work Group voted to recommend a single operating structure for the water and wastewater system serving Baltimore City and County that would be overseen by a completely new board. Under the Board’s recommendation, the city would cede an unspecified degree of control to a new board, which would take one of two compositions: a 10-member board with an equal split board of five members from the city and five from the county, or an 11-member board with five members from the city, four from the county and two to be decided later.  Further, the work group recommended changes to state law as necessary to enact its recommendations and to extend the work group to oversee implementation. 

Advocates criticized the work group for failing to finalize promised financial and equity analyses before this vote, and for excluding public participation and limiting transparency during its subcommittee process. 

Jorge Aguilar, Southern Regional Director for Food & Water Watch said:

“For years, Food & Water Watch has been calling for the city to maintain control of the system and improve equity in how water costs are allocated between the city and county. It’s a real shame that the work group advanced a recommendation without performing the required racial equity analysis or any meaningful financial analysis of the change. If the change strips the City Council of its power to legislate water programs, it would jeopardize essential customer protections, including the Water4All affordability program and the Office of Water Advocacy and Customer Appeals. As these recommendations are considered, the public must be brought into the fold and equity must be prioritized before any change is formally adopted.”

The work group’s recommendations trend toward the same regionalized model that was previously rejected. Nearly 20 groups sent a letter — facilitated by Food & Water Watch and the Baltimore Right to Water Coalition —  ahead of the vote, urging that Baltimore City retain control of its water, sewer, and stormwater systems by rejecting a transition to a regionalized model. Advocates have urged that the City Council retain the power to establish water access and affordability protections for households through local ordinance. 

During the previous Task Force process, water advocates found a regional authority could increase rates for city residents because of high financial and transaction costs and deepen racial and economic inequities for the city’s 60% Black population. City residents already pay more than the county’s residents for the same service.

Background

Baltimore made history in 2018 by becoming the first major U.S. city to ban water privatization, but advocates warn that without strong public protections, a regional authority could endanger key programs to provide water affordability credits, protect against water shutoffs, establish a Customer Advocate’s office, and prevent privatization. In 2020, water bills in Baltimore exceeded two percent of median income — the affordability threshold for water — in 131 of 200 census tracts, 108 of which were majority-Black. 

Meanwhile, historically, Baltimore County has been a fierce proponent of a regionalized system, despite such a move diminishing the city’s majority-Black elected officials control of Baltimore’s water, giving more power to the county’s majority-white suburban leaders. The County Council went on to pass a resolution in 2019 “urging the creation of a regional management authority to specifically address the future infrastructure needs of the county’s public water and sewer system.” 

The decision comes nearly three weeks after Food & Water Watch released a new report that surveyed the 500 largest water systems in the country serving residential customers. The report found that water bills in Maryland grew about twice as fast as median household income in the state.