{"id":888234,"date":"2026-10-19T23:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T23:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/888234\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T23:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T23:48:15","slug":"back-river-plant-odor-complaints-persist-near-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/888234\/","title":{"rendered":"Back River plant odor complaints persist near plant"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Marshall<\/a>BALTIMORE \u2014<\/p>\n

Residents near the Back River wastewater treatment plant in Baltimore are voicing concerns about persistent foul odors,<\/a> though the city argues there is no evidence the smells are coming from the facility.<\/p>\n

The Maryland Department of the Environment has investigated the issue, noting odors at the plant during at least three inspections this year.<\/p>\n

Last month, MDE issued a nuisance odor violation to the city. <\/p>\n

However, the Baltimore Department of Public Works denied the violation,<\/a> stating the inspections only detected smells within the facility and that MDE did not provide evidence the odors were affecting the surrounding area.<\/p>\n

| DOCUMENT: Read City DPW’s response to the citation issued by the MDE<\/a><\/p>\n

Residents remain skeptical of the city’s claims.<\/p>\n

“It does smell like the sewers, you know, like, you know, when you leave, like, bathroom poop,” Lavar Hill, who fishes at Back River, told WBAL-TV 11 News.<\/p>\n

Santo Wren, who was visiting nearby Cox Point Park, described the smell as “a very funky smell.”<\/p>\n

Residents passing by the plant have grown accustomed to the smell and have been vocal about their frustrations. <\/a><\/p>\n

Mazon, who fishes at Back River, said, “If I lived over there, I’d be either suing or moving.”<\/p>\n

On Friday, DPW reiterated its stance, saying reported smells from the community were inconsistent with sewage treatment and suggesting the odors could be coming from other facilities or organic material.<\/p>\n

“It’s coming from the plant. Everybody will tell you it’s coming from a plant,” Hill said.<\/p>\n

The city says a third-party assessment is tracking potential sources, while a plant fence line and monitoring process are in place. <\/p>\n

Officials have also been holding community meetings since last year and the city said it has been completing odor-related assessments as requested by the state.<\/p>\n

WBAL-TV 11 News reached out to MDE and DPW for updates on the next steps, but no response has been received yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BALTIMORE \u2014 Residents near the Back River wastewater treatment plant in Baltimore are voicing concerns about persistent foul…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":888235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[372513,9097,4,450,7053,1075,372521,372520,194848,223571,372518,36010,15058,278474,372515,451,102351,8640,361307,372523,3,372517,24492,372514,372519,372524,36354,372525,6273,372516,45396,42800,372522,452,453,222065,136827,2394],"class_list":["post-888234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-back-river","tag-baltimore","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-city","tag-community","tag-community-meetings","tag-cox-point-park","tag-department-of-public-works","tag-dpw","tag-environment-investigation","tag-evidence","tag-facility","tag-fence-line","tag-foul-odors","tag-headlines","tag-inspection","tag-maryland","tag-mde","tag-monitoring-process","tag-news","tag-nuisance-odor","tag-odor","tag-odor-complaints","tag-odor-violation","tag-organic-material","tag-plant","tag-read-city-dpw","tag-residents","tag-sewage-smell","tag-sewage-treatment","tag-smell","tag-third-party-assessment","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-wastewater-plant","tag-wbal-tv","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}