SPARROWS POINT, Md. — Residents in Sparrows Point are dealing with a string of water main breaks that keep disrupting their daily lives, with neighbors saying the problem is getting worse instead of better.
Jocelyn Petcholan said the breaks have left her without water on multiple occasions.
"This has just been consistently week after week after week like today we have no water again," Petcholan said.
Sparrows Point residents frustrated by repeated water main breaks
The outages have affected basic daily routines for Petcholan and her family.
"We haven't been able to take showers. We haven't been able to brush our teeth. We haven't been able to go to the bathroom," Petcholan said.
Petcholan said the breaks appear to be spreading through the neighborhood rather than being contained.
"We get this one up here right by our church, but then now it seems to be carrying down the street. We had a couple big ones down there, so it's getting worse instead of getting better," Petcholan said.
Farther down the road, Thomas Wortham recently dealt with a water main break directly in front of his home. He said the repeated disruptions are a concern for the entire neighborhood.
"They need to repair all the infrastructure in here and it's very concerning to the neighbors and we don't like having our water turned off when we pay to have water," Wortham said.
Baltimore City's Department of Public Works handles water main breaks in the area, even when they occur in the county. Bryan Samuels, bureau head of DPW's Utility Maintenance Division, said the frequency of breaks this summer has been unusual.
"We've noticed a big uptake, which normally during the summer we do not have," Samuels said.
Samuels said while the city responds to breaks and works to restore service quickly, long-term infrastructure improvements are the county's responsibility.
"So our engineering department is actually doing a complete analysis and they'll share that with the county. The county actually is more responsible for the capital improvement of the water lines not the city. We actually just respond to the brakes and make it safe for the customers as fast as we can," Samuels said.
Baltimore County's Department of Public Works referred questions back to the city. Councilman Todd Crandell's office had not returned a request for comment as of the time of this report.
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