Recently, increased attention has been placed on problems of water affordability, especially for minority communities. Water system revenue losses, inefficiency, mismanagement, lack of productivity, and federal mandates, to name a few problems, are rapidly escalating the cost of water for consumers. Because the Maryland Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission focuses on the cost of water, especially its disparate impact on minority communities and protected classes of people, this testimony will focus on Baltimore.

Baltimore’s demographic make-up is notable. Baltimore County has a population of 854,535 and Baltimore City has a population of 593,490. Baltimore City is 62% Black or African American, 31% White, and 5% Hispanic/​Latino (United States Census Bureau, 2019). 21% of the population in Baltimore City lives below the poverty line (Marylanders Against Poverty, 2020). More specifically, 26.1% of Black or African Americans in Baltimore City and 22.5% of Hispanic or Latinos in Baltimore City live below the poverty line.

There have been serious problems with the water and wastewater systems in Baltimore for decades. These problems are endemic, growing, and will continue to adversely affect the affordability of water until their root causes — mismanagement and system deterioration ± are addressed. I submit that subsidies to treat the symptoms of these problems will only make matters worse, and that the cost of water will continue to rise until and unless private enterprise is able to aid the City in fixing its failing and cost-ineffective water and wastewater systems.

Baltimore’s Water System

I have been an observer of Baltimore’s water system for 52 years. Indeed, when I joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 1969, I was mentored about the system by Prof. Abel Wolman, Prof. John C. Geyer, Prof. Charles Renn, and Dr. F. Pierce Linaweaver, who later became Baltimore’s director of public works. I first surveyed the problems with Baltimore’s water and wastewater systems in an official capacity when I was a member of Governor Marvin Mandel’s Council of Economic Advisers (1976–1977). Gov. Mandel was, even 45 years ago, very concerned about the looming problems facing Baltimore’s water and wastewater systems.

Baltimore’s distribution system delivers treated water to Baltimore and the surrounding metropolitan area. The service area is approximately 560 square miles and provides potable water to approximately 1.8 million people (about 30% of Maryland’s population). The water distribution system contains over 4,500 miles of water mains. The water mains connect to a series of pumping stations, reservoirs, and storage tanks. This system provides water to Baltimore City as well as parts of Baltimore County, Howard County, and Anne Arundel County (Baltimore City Department of Public Works).