Yesterday, in celebration of Earth Day Blue Water Baltimore released its Water Quality Report Card for 2020. 

Blue Water Baltimore has issued its Water Quality Report Card for 2020 that scores the health of waterways in the Baltimore region. Blue Water Baltimore has been conducting extensive data collection on the region’s waterways since 2013, giving them enough data to conduct analysis on 7-10 years worth of water quality trends.

Blue Water Baltimore scores water quality based on oxygen content, water clarity, temperature, and other factors to come up with a yearly score. While areas such as the Baltimore Harbor (50%), and the tidal Patapsco River (53%) received poor marks, water quality in areas such as Jones Falls and Gwynns Falls appears to be trending upwards.

From the press release:

Projects undertaken by the City and County to improve our old leaky sewer infrastructure seem to be working. While we can not necessarily link bacteria improvements to specific projects, we are hopeful that this data trend indicates real progress associated with sewer improvements.

Blue Water does state that they believe there is a missing element of regional collaboration when it comes to stormwater management, and indicates that there is a need to increase funding.

Blue Water Baltimore Report Card

Blue Water Baltimore press release