For decades, concerned Baltimore residents have fought to restore and protect the Jones Falls, the long-abused and neglected stream that flows through the heart of the city before emptying into the Inner Harbor.
The Jones Falls, described by some as the city’s “founding river,” provided water power for mills in the 1800s, and Baltimore grew around and over the river — until it was so polluted and engorged with stormwater that city leaders decided in the early 1900s to bury the last of it beneath downtown streets and buildings.
The 18-mile-long waterway continues to suffer from sewage overflows, stormwater pollution and litter. But progress has been made. There are even ambitious plans in the works to transform the Lower Jones Falls Valley into a park that could attract more wildlife and people.
Those dreams were shaken recently when city officials declared their intention to move an existing trash and recycling drop-off station to Falls Road, just a stone’s throw from the water. The news triggered outcries from environmentalists, community leaders and neighboring residents, who warned the move would harm the falls and make it unsafe for the hikers, bicyclists and nature lovers who frequent the area. Opposition also came from businesses that occupy the old mill buildings and other industrial structures that line the stream’s banks.
Within days, opponents had launched a “Don’t Trash the Falls” campaign, complete with a Facebook page and posters tacked up along Falls Road.
City officials have said the existing recycling and household waste drop-off station on Sisson Street in the Remington neighborhood is too cramped and unsafe for sanitation workers. They propose selling it to a developer who plans to build a grocery store there. The recycling facility is already a little over 400 feet from the Jones Falls, and the move to the new site would cut that distance by more than half. A construction company currently uses the proposed site for storage.
Alice Volpitta, the Harbor Waterkeeper with the nonprofit Blue Water Baltimore, sent an email alert in late August pointing out that the new location is in a floodplain.
“Heavy rains and flooding could sweep trash, oil and hazardous materials into the Jones Falls — just 150 feet away — and ultimately into the Harbor and Chesapeake Bay,” Volpitta wrote.
It also is just up Falls Road from a chronic sewage overflow outfall, she pointed out in an interview, where the road is often inundated during heavy rains with a mixture of polluted stormwater and diluted but untreated wastewater.
“The city is saying one of the big reasons they want to move the transfer station is in response to employee safety concerns,” Volpitta said, “[but] relocating workers into a flood zone is the opposite of being responsive to their safety concerns.”
According to the city, the planned entrance and exit lie within the 100-year floodplain, and virtually the entire site is in the 500-year floodplain.
“Any new construction at that location would be reviewed by the Maryland Department of the Environment,” Department of Public Works spokesperson Mary Stewart wrote in an email.
Sandy Sparks, president and co-founder of the nonprofit Friends of the Jones Falls, acknowledged that the Sisson Street location is “really awkward” and the operation needs a roomier, more accessible site. But she said moving it closer to the stream undercuts efforts of her group and others to reclaim the Jones Falls as a community asset.
“We’ve had long-term plans that Falls Road would be this wonderful greenway,” Sparks said.
The friends group, formed in 2018, has enlisted hundreds of volunteers over the last two years to remove invasive vines and nonnative trees along a portion of the Jones Falls. With grants from multiple sources, the group has installed a small artificial wetland to intercept runoff from a parking lot near the stream. It also plans to add a boardwalk and educational signage with funds from the settlement of a lawsuit involving industrial pollution.
The friends are even launching an effort to craft a plan for the entire 58-square-mile Jones Falls watershed, which flows from northwest of the city in Baltimore County.
Efforts to reconnect people with the Jones Falls began in the 1990s, with construction of the 10-mile Jones Falls Trail for hikers and bicyclists. The trail segment where the waste transfer site would go, though, is narrow and hemmed in by Falls Road and the steep stream gorge. Sparks said it needs to be widened and enhanced.
Even so, on a weekday morning the trail draws a trickle of pedestrians, scooter riders and cyclists, some of whom stop to view or listen to the rushing water. Andrell Speaker, a chef with his own catering business, said he visits every Monday to “unwind, get a clear mind and get lost” in the torrent of Round Falls, a waterfall over the semicircular remains of a 19th-century dam.
Part of the plan for relocating the drop-off station calls for closing a stretch of Falls Road to through traffic, which Sparks said has proved particularly unpopular. Though narrow, winding and potholed, the road is a popular tree-shaded route for at least some commuters.
The opposition has put the sale of the drop-off center site on hold, at least for now. Mayor Brandon Scott announced in September that he would form a task force to recommend whether to keep the facility where it is, relocate it or close it altogether.
“All of those options are on the table,” Scott said.
The mayor had wanted to resolve the issue by December, but the task force wasn’t named until early October, and its first meeting took place Oct. 20. Stewart, the public works spokesperson, said the recommendation is now due by the end of the year.