Report: Baltimore Must Do More To Have Clean Harbor By 2020

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The Baltimore Harbor has long been contaminated with trash and sewage.

The city has a goal to make the harbor safe enough for people to swim in by 2020.

But a report out just this week finds the city has a lot to do to accomplish that goal.

Ava Joye Burnett breaks down what it will take to clean the harbor up.

It could take years to clean the harbor up, but progress in other cities show it's absolutely possible.

The biggest pollution problem for the harbor is what you can't always see -- sewage.

When it rains, there's overflow that eventually makes its way into the harbor.

"Even when it's not raining, we have so many cracks and breaks in our sewer systems that it's constantly leaking sewage into our streams and into our harbor," said Adam Lindquist, of the Healthy Water Initiative.

The report also found the harbor is so dirty, if someone gets in the water it could cause serious infections and disease.

"Oh I think that's a shame," said Baltimore resident John Kang. "We have a lot of tourists coming to this area and that would definitely turn them off from coming to this place again."

The city's goal is to have this water swimmable by 2020, but before that can happen, they'll have to find a way to address all of the sewage that's spilling into the harbor.

"Well we have made progress and we know we have to make more," said Jeffrey Raymond, with the Dept. of Public Works.

The city has a $1.1 billion plan to clean up. The sewage systems is more than a century old with more than 3,000 miles of pipes.

"We are not just waiting, we are working." said Raymond. "We are out there, our sewer projects are happening throughout the city."

Stopping the sewage flow will take time, but for many its can't come soon enough.

"There's a smell that comes with it," said Chris Faustin, of Baltimore. "It's unsightly and it's unfortunate because it's otherwise a very beautiful area."

Remember some of the trash comes from up-stream and flows right into the harbor.

That's why the report also recommends that the state and federal government help with this clean up.

Some of the other cities that have made progress in cleaning up their bodies of water include New Orleans, Los Angeles and Boston.