Crews working for the Baltimore City Department of Public Works (DPW) will repair a 21-inch sewer main that has been found to be leaking into Chinquapin Run near Loch Raven Boulevard.

A member of DPW’s Pollution Control team found the leak, estimated at about 15 gallons per hour, through routine dye testing. DPW uses dye testing to assess the integrity of its sewer infrastructure.

In order to make sure the leak is corrected some 600 feet of sewer main in the area of the waterway will need to be cleaned and lined, at an expected cost of $115,000. Work should start within three weeks, and take four weeks to complete. However, the total volume of water estimated to have leaked from the pipe is predicted to exceed 10,000 gallons by next week.

Signs have already been posted in the area warning people not to come into contact with the water. Citizens are encouraged to avoid contact with urban streams due to possible pollution. Baltimore City is in the construction phase of the $1 billion Consent Decree rehabilitation of our sewer infrastructure.

For more information about health concerns as a result of sewer overflows please go to: http://health.baltimorecity.gov/sanitary-sewer-overflows-sso.