BALTIMORE, MD - Fewer than 50 customers – out of more than 6,000 who called to report a loss of water – remain without water service Tuesday morning as a result of the record cold temperatures in February. The Baltimore City Department of Public Works (DPW) will begin deactivating its Emergency Operations Center that it set up to coordinate the response.

 

The City received more than 6,000 calls since February 14 requesting workers to restore water service due to frozen or broken service lines or meters. More than 99 percent of the cold weather-related jobs are complete.

 

“I want to thank our customers in the City and in Baltimore County for their patience,” said DPW Director Rudy S. Chow, P.E. “Many of them endured genuine hardship as we worked to get water service restored to everyone these last few weeks.”

 

Many of the ongoing service repairs are among the most complicated. Contractors continue to assist DPW maintenance crews with the service requests, and DPW crews are still working extended shifts – though workers are stepping down from 16-hour shifts to 12 hours. Work continues for customers still needing help with water in their basements or exterior water leaks. Crews are also prepared to respond to a possible surge in water main leaks caused by the ground thawing around the heavy pipes.

 

When the coldest of temperatures, into the teens or single digits, arrived in mid-February, requests for service surged from 50 to 100 per day to more than 400 per day, every day, for 11 days. On two of those days the City took more than 1,200 water-related calls.

 

In response to this extraordinary demand, Director Chow ordered maintenance crews to work extended shifts, moved employees from other divisions to assist the restoration efforts, brought in contractors to take on work, and opened the Emergency Operations Center in the Department’s Park Terminal building near Druid Hill Park. Crews from the Baltimore County Department of Public Works assisted with water service inspections in much of the County.

 

The Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management stepped in to contact customers still without water and identify assistance needed.  The Baltimore Fire Department, Housing Department, and Health Department also provided assistance, including delivery of hundreds of gallons of water to those who had been without service.

 

“We understand and share your frustration,” Director Chow said of the water customers. “We have already begun discussing what we need to do to prepare a better response next time.”

 

Any customer experiencing issues with their water service should call 311 to submit a service request.  Customers who have a frozen or broken water service line on their side of the water meter vault or interior plumbing problem will need to contact a plumber to complete the repair. Customers who need financial assistance should call 311 to see whether the City may be able to help.

 





Customers in the City may also contact HomeServe USA, a private company endorsed by the City to provide service repairs to damaged water and sewer lines on private property. More information is available at BaltimoreServiceRepairs.com or at 1-855-807-6631.