SUNDAY, JUNE 12 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE C7
vironmental Service observed
plant employees sleeping in their
cars during the workday and
washing each other’s personal ve-
hicles in exchange for “payment
or free lunch.” They also observed
apprentices at the plant training
other apprentices, which the re-
port dubbed a “recipe for failure.”
“The Back River WWTP man-
agement team seems to have
trouble disciplining employees
when necessary; the thought of
firing someone appears nonexis-
tent,” the report reads.
The report also described in-
fighting between different groups
of employees, including the main-
tenance and operations staffs,
adding that verbal and physical
altercations between employees
“have been observed on both the
supervisory and subordinate
l evel.”
When a team of about a dozen
workers from the M ES arrived at
the plant, following an emergen-
cy order from then-Maryland Sec-
retary of the Environment Ben
Grumbles, they encountered a
persistent lack of urgency among
staff, according to Thursday’s
r eport.
“Based on what MES has seen
in the roughly two months at this
facility, the gravity of this issue
does not seem to resonate with
DPW staff as their response to the
MDE order seems to have been
met with a ‘business as usual’
approach,” the report read.
For example, at an initial week-
ly meeting on April 1, MES and
city staffers discussed bringing
potable water into the plant that
would help with removing solid
materials as needed. According to
the report, the DPW director de-
fended the city’s slow movement
on the water line, stating that “it
has only been seven days” since
Grumbles’ order was issued.
“The MDE representative at
the meeting reminded DPW that
it had actually been 7 months of
noncompliance,” the report stat-
ed.
When the issue came up again
at a May 16 meeting, a DPW
official said it “would get some-
thing started soon.” Discussions
about how to streamline the city’s
procurement process for Back
River also appeared slow-moving,
the report noted.
Meanwhile, the Department of
Public Works director frequently
did not attend meetings about the
plant, and the head of its Bureau
of Water and Wastewater em-
ployed a “defensive attitude,”
which the report stated “does not
bode well in expecting workers to
be responsible and accountable.”
“There are many dedicated em-
ployees who want to see changes
and bring the Back River facility
back to being a world class facili-
ty,” the report said, “but they see
no reason to jeopardize their live-
lihood and retirements in fight-
ing the management team.”
Problems at the plant first
came to light in August, when
water-quality monitoring from
local nonprofit Blue Water Balti-more flagged high bacteria levels
outside Baltimore City’s second
plant along the Patapsco River.
After the group’s findings, state
environmental regulators con-
ducted increasingly frequent in-
spections at both plants and sued
the city over the plants’ environ-
mental woes in January.The city also faces a suit from
Blue Water Baltimore.
In March, after a fish kill in
Back River, inspectors returned
to the plant again and issued a
report that Grumbles deemed evi-
dence of the potential for “cata-
strophic failure” at the facility. If
the city couldn’t bring Back Riverinto compliance in 48 hours, the
state would be taking charge of
the effort, Grumbles said.
The city balked at Grumbles’
order, filing a court challenge that
has yet to be adjudicated. The city
is on the hook to pay for the MES
efforts, according to state law.
— Baltimore Sun
BY CHRISTINE CONDONA blistering state report on
Baltimore’s ailing Back River
Wastewater Treatment Plant
made public Thursday detailed
“systemic problems” plaguing the
facility, including “failures at
nearly every level.”
The report was produced by
the Maryland Environmental
Service (MES), which took over
the plant in late March. It laid out
a variety of infrastructure prob-
lems that have caused solid waste
to build up in various parts of the
sewage treatment process at the
plant, leading to excessive releas-
es of harmful bacteria and nutri-
ents.
But it also dove into problems
with management, safety and
staffing, blasting Baltimore De-
partment of Public Works offi-
cials for a “lack of leadership” and
providing a first look at a failing
culture inside the facility, where
problems first became public last
summer.
In addition to a litany of me-
chanical fixes, the report recom-
mended the hiring of several new
employees, including an on-site
safety manager, a training and
certification manager, and a
b iosolids manager with two sup-
porting staff members, focused
on processing solid waste.
A spokeswoman for the city’s
Department of Public Works em-
phasized that the issues at the
plant predate public works direc-
tor Jason Mitchell, who started in
2021, adding that the department
has a “renewed commitment to
continuing to address these chal-
lenges, including governance, op-
erations, and employee safety”
under his leadership.
“We fully recognize the long-
standing challenges impacting
the treatment plant and imple-
mentation of solutions to remedy
these issues are already under-
way,” spokeswoman Yolanda
Winkler wrote in an email. “Sev-
eral of them have already been
addressed.”
In a statement, Maryland Sec-
retary of the Environment Hora-
cio Tablada wrote that the report
“reflects conditions at the facility
and provides useful information
as we all work toward improving
its performance. MDE is commit-
ted to working with MES and
Baltimore City leadership to en-
sure that the plant comes into
compliance with its permit.”
Meanwhile, recent reports
from the city’s second wastewater
plant — the Patapsco Wastewater
Treatment Plant — indicate me-
chanical issues there are continu-
ing to worsen, resulting in pollu-
tion overflows and calls from
environmental groups for that
plant to come under state control
as well.
In its report about the Back
River plant, the Environmental
Service found that all of the vari-
ous shops in the facility were
understaffed by 25 percent to
50 percent, with 50 vacancies in
operations staff (about half of the
team) and 44 vacancies across its
other departments.
Its report described a lack of
succession planning and training
for new managers, adding that
“most managers at the facility
have only been in their current
positions a few years due to turn-
over.”
The plant has endured years of
neglect, in part because of a fail-
ure to track the life cycle of
equipment in a centralized way,
according to the report. The facil-
ity largely scorned preventive
maintenance, perhaps because of
understaffing, instead repairing
machinery only after it broke.
The plant’s automation also
does not work, meaning most
equipment runs on manual mode
and controls rigged to keep them
from “tripping out.”
The Environmental Service re-
port catalogued dangerous condi-
tions at the plant, such as perva-
sive sludge spills, broken doors
leading to birds and other wildlife
“taking up residency” in build-
ings, electrical panels “left open
and exposed,” insufficient light-
ing and rusting catwalks — even
after an employee fell to her death
through a deteriorating catwalk
in Baltimore’s other wastewater
treatment plant in 2019.
“Most of the facility’s valves,
pumps, blowers, mixers, and con-
trols are not functional. Pumps
are plugged with trash, drains are
clogged, and floors are covered
with water or sludge,” read the
report. “The lack of maintenance
activities or funding for repairs
has caused the staff to find many
unnecessary workarounds to
keep the plant operating.”
But the plant has received mil-
lions of dollars in investments in
recent years, including nearly a
half-billion dollars for the Head-
works Project, which made im-
provements at the beginning of
the plant’s wastewater treatment
process, including addressing a
sewage bottleneck at the plant
entrance. But even as the project
was being unveiled, mechanical
problems later in the process
were becoming more dire. Even-
tually solid waste began to over-
whelm various parts of the sys-
tem, leading to the state takeover.
The report described a frus-
trated workforce with little su-
pervision from plant manage-
ment — and inadequate training.
Staffers from the Maryland En-MARYLAND
Infrastructure, sta∞ng
‘failures’ at waste plant
service issues, Metro also has
seen an increase in average rider-
ship over the spring. Average
weekday rail ridership increased
85 percent from January to May,
while average weekday bus rider-
ship more than doubled over the
same time. The timing also coin-
cides with a rise in office work as
restrictions have loosened more
than two years into the pandem-
ic. Metrorail passenger counts
are still about 40 percent of
pre-pandemic levels.
Greg Gant, an engineer and
YMCA instructor who lives on
Capitol Hill, said he switched to
public transportation this month
to get to work after gasoline
prices became too high. He tracks
his gas expenses using an app —
paying well over $5 a gallon to fill
up his tank with premium gas.
He said he hopes to switch
back to driving, but for now, the
price of gas is “just too much.”
Experts said high gas prices
could lead people to seek out
more environmentally friendly
alternatives to their gas-guzzling
commutes. Knittel said more
people in urban areas probably
will seek out public transporta-
tion options.
“There are a fair bit of invest-
ment costs to learn the system
and organize rides,” he said. “I
would expect that a fair number
of commuters would start to in-
vest the time and effort in learn-
ing what is their best public
transit options available to them,
and then the next response to
that is to lobby or certainly put
pressure on policymakers to im-
prove public transit systems.”
Thompson said he plans to
continue limiting his driving in
hopes that fuel demand will wane
in the coming months and price
relief will follow.
“I’m just trying to get through
the summer,” he said. “I’m hope-
ful something will change by
then.”His three roommates have also
started to consolidate their driv-
ing trips to save money. Instead
of grocery shopping individually,
he said, they will ask each other
to pick up items if someone is
planning to shop.
“I don’t go out as much to buy
groceries or run errands,” Chase
said. “As much as we can, [we]
compact the trip to one visit.”
Experts said also they expect
continued flexibility with remote
work, an option made more ac-
cessible by the pandemic.
With an 80-mile commute to
D.C. each day, Monica Stearns, a
college administrator from Win-
chester, has been working from
home when she can. To ease the
effects of higher commuting
costs, she said she’s weighing
how to offer her staff more flexi-
bility.
“We’re utilizing telework when
we can, remote working, and
being flexible in terms of the
timing they come in so they can
take advantage of off-hours,” she
said.
The rising prices have led some
motorists to give alternatives
such as Metro and Capital Bike-
share another look. While it’s not
clear how much gas prices are
contributing to ridership increas-
es, leaders of both organizations
say elevated fuel costs are making
public transportation more ap-
pealing.
Capital Bikeshare recorded its
highest pandemic-era ridership
in May, as did the San Francisco
area’s Bay Wheels. New York’s
Citi Bike approached its all-time
single-day record last weekend.
“Bikeshare has always been
among the most affordable op-
tions for traveling a few miles
around the region — and today’s
gas prices make it even more
appealing,” Dominick Tribone,
Lyft’s general manager for Capi-
tal Bikeshare, said in a statement.
Despite multiple safety andfully filling up his tank and tries
to stretch $20 worth of gas to last
a week — often limiting driving to
dropping off his daughter at
school. He said he’s started walk-
ing, rather than driving, to the
grocery store.
“I don’t go out as much any-
more,” Thompson said. “I mini-
mize my driving to bare essen-
tials.”
Some commuters who rely on
their car for work have cut back
on other costs in response to the
rising prices.
David Chase was driving about
100 miles round trip every week-
end from his Gaithersburg home
to see his family on the Eastern
Shore. With the cost of gas rising,
his family has cut back on the
tradition.warmer months that is more
expensive to produce.
“That’s another unfortunate
layer to this drama that’s unfold-
ing,” he said.
Increasing gas prices have ush-
ered in changes to the way people
move around.
A nationwide Washington
Post-Schar School poll conducted
between April 21 and May 12 —
when Washington-area gas prices
were about 57 cents lower —
showed more than 6 in 10 drivers
are deciding to drive less, while
more than 3 in 10 said they are
driving more slowly, which can
boost fuel efficiency. About 2 in 10
drivers have carpooled because of
rising gas prices.
Khalil Thompson, a consultant
who lives in D.C., said he avoidses, we are not seeing a reduction
in gasoline consumption,” she
said Friday. “We have seen, if
anything, an increase in the last
week.”
Rising gas and energy prices
last month contributed to a jump
in inflation, which reached
8.6 percent compared with a year
earlier — the fastest pace in 40
years, according to federal data
released Friday. Airfare, used cars
and new vehicles were among the
other largest contributors to the
rise.
There is probably little relief in
sight for motorists. Eisele said
gas prices also tend to go up in
the summer because of the
switch to summer-grade gasoline
— a cleaner, reformulated blend
offered by stations during thesurge.
The average price for a gallon
of gas stood Saturday at $4.84 in
Virginia and $5.01 in Maryland,
while the average across the
Washington metro area was
$5.04 — about $2 more than a
year earlier, according to AAA.
Regional gas prices are hovering
about 4 cents above the national
average.
California had the nation’s
most expensive gas, at $6.43 a
gallon, while Georgia was the
cheapest at $4.47 a gallon, ac-
cording to AAA.
“We have a bit of a perfect
storm brewing regarding gas
prices and the impact on travel,”
said Bill Eisele, senior research
engineer at the Texas A&M Trans-
portation Institute. “We have this
ubiquitous inflation right now
across all goods and services —
housing is up, groceries are up
and now gas is up.”
Christopher Knittel, a profes-
sor of applied economics at the
MIT Sloan School of Manage-
ment, cited two main economic
and geopolitical factors that have
contributed to the rise at the
pump.
“The war in Ukraine has inject-
ed a lot of uncertainty into oil
markets and has led to less Rus-
sian oil being put on the world
market, so that’s put upward
pressure on oil prices,” he said.
The world’s demand for oil is
also rising more than two years
into the pandemic, Knittel said, a
period that also coincides with a
rise in travel demand. Production
slowed at the start of the pan-
demic as driving levels plummet-
ed, but now supply is struggling
to keep up.
AAA Mid-Atlantic spokeswom-
an Ragina Ali said gasoline de-
mand is continuing to grow as
drivers fuel up for summer travel.
“Despite record-high gas pric-
GAS FROM C1
Record gas prices force drivers to change their routines
GAYA GUPTA/THE WASHINGTON POST
An Exxon station off Michigan Avenue NE in the District last week. Average prices in the area range
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