The City of Baltimore violated federal regulations when city leaders failed to notify the public within 24 hours after learning about E. coli contamination in September 2022, according to a letter sent by the Maryland Department of Environment.
FOX45 News recently obtained the letter that was sent on Nov. 1, 2022, to Yosef Kebede, the head of water and wastewater within the Baltimore City Department of Public Works. According to MDE, the notification of the contamination within a portion of the city’s water system did not meet the federally required 24-hour window.
The letter was sent two weeks after FOX45 News published an investigation that revealed City leaders potentially misrepresented the response to the E. coli contamination that was first detected on Sept. 3, 2022, and repeated testing confirmed the contamination on Sept. 4, 2022.
Thousands of pages of internal communication among top staffers within Baltimore’s DPW were obtained by FOX45 News through a public records request. In the pages, it’s clear the leaders within the department were told by the Maryland Department of Environment to issue a boil water advisory, BWA, Sunday, Sept. 4; that did not happen until nearly 24 hours later.
According to the emails reviewed, MDE took issue with the Tweet and notification DPW posted on Nextdoor that Monday morning, noting the details weren’t sufficient. The information provided by the agency also did not tell residents in the impacted area that they must boil their water, only recommended people do so.
“The Department determined that neither notice met state and federal requirements,” the MDE letter said. “The City submitted the revised public notice to the MDE Water Supply Program at 9:50 pm. For final review. At 9:39 p.m., MDE Water Supply Program provided final comments to the City and the City issued the completed notice at approximately 10 p.m. on September 5.”
The letter from MDE confirmed what FOX45 News had been reporting and contradicts several comments from both Mayor Brandon Scott and DPW Director Jason Mitchell.
City leaders addressed the public and answered questions from the media for the first time late Monday evening, on Sept. 5, 2022.
“Once DPW received that confirmation, the public was notified,” Mayor Scott said.
That comment is not consistent with the emails obtained by FOX45 News and now corroborated by the MDE violation letter.
Two days later, on Sept. 7, 2022, Mayor Scott directed FOX45 News specifically during another news conference and said the city “followed every regulation working with our state partners and they will tell you, we followed every regulation.”
“I want to reiterate, DPW has been in total compliance with EPA and MDE guidelines regarding notification, sampling and mitigating of contaminants,” Director Mitchell said on the same day.
On Oct. 19, following the Baltimore City Board of Estimates Meeting, DPW Director Jason Mitchell was pressed for answers, specifically about why the agency didn’t send the BWA on Sept. 4, 2022, as directed by the state.
“We put out many different things on Sunday – our health department gave information to [a] nursing home,” Mitchell said. “We issued a statement Monday morning on 7:43 a.m. We also had boots on the ground.”
According to the emails reviewed, MDE took issue with the Tweet and notification DPW posted on Nextdoor that Monday morning, noting the details weren’t sufficient. The information provided by the agency also did not tell residents in the impacted area to boil their water, only recommended people do so.
“We worked closely with MDE throughout the entire process,” Mitchell said at the time when pressed again about the timing of the information.
“The boots on the ground, it definitely informed people impacted,” he added. “Especially on the holiday weekend, we knew we needed to get the information.”
The letter from MDE also outlined required action for DPW to take given the violations; DPW was required to complete a “Public Notice Certification form” indicating the city complied with the notification requirement.
“MDE Water Supply Program commends the challenging work performed by City staff during this incident and recognizes the long hours during a holiday weekend may have created additional resource challenges,” the MDE letter stated. “However, this incident revealed improvements that should be undertaken by the City.”
MDE recommended the City develop a standard operating procedure for communicating E. coli detections and drinking water emergencies to the state during both working and non-working hours. During this instance, City leaders sent a notification to the state by email on Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022.
“However, due to offices being closed, the notification was not received by MDE” in a timely manner, the letter outlined.
MDE said DPW must speak with the state directly, either by phone or in person, to report E. coli-positive results, from either routine or repeat samples.
According to MDE Spokesperson Jay Apperson, the City of Baltimore submitted the signed certification and revised “Bacteriological Sample Siting Plan, which included a Public Notice template and communication strategies for Tier 1 Boil Water Advisories for E.coli MCL violations.”
A joint statement from Mayor Scott and DPW refutes the violation claims from the state, again saying the social media posts were sufficient in notifying the public. The City outlined the timeline of the various notifications, and said “as soon as DPW received the second positive test, we alerted MDE via their emergency hotline – in fact MDE was alerted by DPW 16 times!”
“One of the core tents of DPW is providing clean and sustainable water for the community,” the City’s statement said. “That is why during incidents such as this, we take swift action while clearly and effectively communicating any potential health risk to the public and to provide clear guidance on how to stay safe.”
The steps taken involved issuing the boil water advisory, water distribution to those impacted and offering door-to-door notifications and updates, disseminating information on DPW’s social media platforms.
According to the City, a response was sent to MDE on Jan. 5, 2023 and as of March 23, “we have not received a response” regarding the violation letter.
Meanwhile, Mitchell is set to resign from his position at the end of June, after he originally planned to step down in April. After three years of leading the water and wastewater division within DPW, Kebede is expected to resign.
“We wish him all the best as he moves forward in his career and thank him for his service and dedication to the City of Baltimore,” DPW Communications Director Blair Adams said via email on March 22, 2023.
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