Maryland Superheroes Needed to Battle Illicit Discharges
By: Deb Courson Smith, Public News Service – MD, March 6, 2012
BALTIMORE - When Marylanders flush the toilet or pull a bathtub plug, it's assumed the wastewater goes to a treatment facility. But that's not always the case, as the Center for Watershed Protection discovered during its initial research into flows coming from stormwater pipes draining into local streams and creeks.
Watershed ecologist Lori Lilly, a planner with the Center, says that whenever water is flowing out of those pipes on a dry day, it should be tested.
"Our research has shown that 80 percent of the time there's something in the water that shouldn't be there, and it might be sanitary waste or it might be wash water."
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