Subtitle 20 – Sewers

If any person shall wilfully stop up, obstruct, injure or damage the passage of the waters of any of the common or private sewers or drains, he shall be fined a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars, to be collected as other fines are collected.

The Mayor and City Council of Baltimore shall have full power to provide for constructing, opening, enlarging or straightening, subject to the provisions hereinbefore contained as to the Board of Public Improvements and the Board of Estimates, any sewer or drain, public or private, through any private property, upon giving thirty days’ notice in writing to the owner or agent of said private property, or to one of them, if more than one, leaving such notice at the usual place of abode of such owner or agent, or at the usual place of abode of one of them, if more than one, or if none of said parties live in the City of Baltimore, by setting up said notice on the land or premises; to provide for ascertaining what amount of actual benefit will thereby accrue to the owner or possessor of any ground or improvements within or adjoining the City, being governed as far as practicable by the number of superficial feet drained, and to provide for assessing and levying, either generally on the whole assessable property of the said City, or by a loan for the special purpose of constructing, opening, enlarging or straightening any sewer, the sum necessary to pay the expense or cost, or specially on the property of persons actually benefitted, the whole or any part of the damages and expenses which they shall ascertain will be incurred in constructing, opening, enlarging, or straightening any sewer in any street, lane or alley, or through any private property in said City; to provide for granting appeals to the court having jurisdiction thereof in Baltimore City, from the decision of any commissioners or other persons appointed in virtue of any ordinance to ascertain the damage which will be incurred or the benefits which will accrue to the owners or possessors of any ground or improvements for constructing, opening, enlarging or straightening in any street, lane or alley, or through any private property, any sewer which in their opinion the public welfare or convenience may require, and for securing to every such owner or possessor the right on application within a reasonable time to have decided by a jury trial whether any damage and what amount of damage has been caused, or whether any benefit and what amount of benefit, has accrued to them; and to provide for collecting and paying over the amount of compensation adjudged to each person to receive the same, or investing in stock of said corporation, bearing interest of five per centum per annum, for the use of any person who, because of infancy, absence from the City, or other cause, may be prevented from receiving it, before any sewer shall be constructed, opened, enlarged or straightened in any street, lane or alley, or through any private property, and to enact and pass all ordinances from time to time which shall be deemed necessary and proper to exercise the power and effect the objects herein specified.

The amount of benefits assessed on any property for constructing, opening, enlarging or straightening any sewer in any street, lane or alley, or through any private property, constructed, opened, enlarged or straightened by virtue of any ordinance passed by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, shall be a lien on the property and recoverable as City taxes are.

No private sewer or drain shall be constructed, altered, or repaired without a permit from the City Engineer.

Before the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore shall pass any ordinance under <cite>this article</cite> relating to the constructing, opening, enlarging or straightening any sewer through any private street, lane or alley, or through any private property, notice shall be given of an application for the passage of such an ordinance in at least two of the daily newspapers of said City twice a week for thirty days.

Before any commissioners appointed by any ordinance of said corporation under the preceding sections hereof shall proceed to the performance of their duty, they shall give daily notice, in at least two newspapers in the City of Baltimore, of the object of the ordinance under which they propose to act, at least thirty days before the time of the first meeting to execute the same.

Should the commissioners appointed by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore assess any part of the expense and damage incurred in the construction, opening, enlarging or straightening any sewer in the City, upon the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, the said Mayor and City Council of Baltimore may levy a tax on the assessable property of the City for the amount of such assessment, or they may raise the necessary amount by a loan, for the payment of which they may create a sinking fund to meet the liabilities incurred; and may also levy on the assessable property of the City of Baltimore from time to time such sums as may be necessary to provide therefor, and for the principal and interest of the liabilities incurred, and may pass all ordinances necessary to carry out the provisions of the same.

Said Commission shall be charged with the duty of projecting, constructing and establishing a sewerage system for the collection, transmission and disposal of the house and other sewage and drainage of the City of Baltimore, including, either as a combined or separate feature of said system the collection, transmission and disposal of storm and ground water, respectively, and shall be clothed with each and every and all powers which, by anything short of a palpably forced construction, may be held to be necessary or proper for these purposes, or either of them, among which powers shall be the following, that is to say:

The Mayor and City Council of Baltimore acting by and through the agency of said commission, may acquire by gift, purchase, lease, whatever the duration of the lease, or other like methods of acquisition, or by condemnation, any land or property situated wholly or partly within the City of Baltimore or within any of the counties of this State, or any interest, franchise, easement, right or privilege therein which may be required for the purpose of constructing and establishing said sewerage system, or any part or parts thereof, or that may be needed for the workings of said system when established, and when and so often as resort shall be had to condemnation proceedings, the procedure shall be that of Title 12 of the Real Property Article of the Code of Public General Laws of Maryland, relating to condemnation of property by corporations; or so far as the acquisition by condemnation of any such land or property situated wholly or partly within the City of Baltimore, or any interest, franchise, easement, right or privilege therein is concerned, may in any case or cases, at the option of said commission, be such as may now or at any time hereafter be provided for by any lawful ordinance or ordinances of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, adopted pursuant to the powers conferred upon it by <cite data-doc="City of Baltimore, Md., Charter">the Charter of Baltimore City</cite>, 1964 Revision, Article II, “General Powers” Section 2, “Condemnation” for the condemnation of any land or property or interest therein, situated wholly or partly within the City of Baltimore, or such as may be provided for the purpose by any lawful ordinance or ordinances of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore; which said ordinance or ordinances the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore is hereby fully authorized to adopt; provided, provision is made therein for reasonable notice to the owner or owners, and for appeals to the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, including the right of appeal to the Court of Special Appeals, by any person interested, including the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, from the decision of any Commissioners or other persons appointed to value any such land or property, or interest, franchise, easement, right or privilege therein.

So often as any portion of said sewerage system shall be in actual operation and in a condition to collect, transmit and dispose of domestic or house sewage, the said commission shall notify the Commissioner of Health of the said City of Baltimore of that fact and impart to him the metes and bounds of said portion of said sewerage system in such state of preparedness, and it shall thereupon become his duty to require all owners of property within such metes and bounds, and shall become the duty of all such owners at their own cost and expense to forthwith connect their respective house drains at their respective building lines with said sewerage system, and to forthwith clean out and fill up their respective privy sinks, wells, cesspools or other sewerage or drainage receptacles, and to abandon the use of their existing arrangements of every sort for the disposal of sewage or drainage under the directions and control of said Commissioner of Health;

and full power is hereby conferred upon the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore to pass any ordinance or ordinances and provide for any remedial proceedings or processes or for any penalty or penalties that may be necessary, in its judgment, to enable said Commissioner of Health to properly and effectively comply with the obligations or any of the obligations hereinbefore imposed upon him by <cite data-path="20|§20-10">this section</cite>, and to keep the drainage connections between said respective building lines and said sewerage system free from obstruction and in good working order; and to do any and all things reasonably necessary to be done to compel said owners of said property to place and maintain the same in relations of full cooperation with said sewerage system.

The Sewerage Commission <em>{Department of Public Works}</em> shall locate its sewers intended for house connections in the rear of said houses whenever practicable and whenever said houses are not already otherwise connected with sewers, but said Sewerage Commission may locate any of said sewers in the front of said houses whenever the cost to the owners of the majority of the houses to be connected with said sewers in any block will be less if laid in front of said houses than if laid in the rear of said houses, and it shall be the duty of the Sewerage Commission to use private sewers whenever suitable and whenever any of said sewers is suitable and of sufficient capacity both to drain the houses connected with each sewer and such other houses as may be built abutting on that part of the street, alley or way in or near which said sewer is located, then the said Commission shall acquire, and it is hereby directed to acquire said sewer if the same can be obtained at a sum not exceeding fifty per cent of what would be the cost of constructing and laying a sewer of the same kind in the same place, and if the same cannot be obtained, then the said Commission shall not be required to acquire said sewer, but said Commission may either build another sewer to take the place of said private sewer, or, in its discretion, may acquire said sewer for a sum exceeding fifty per cent of said cost, or, in its discretion, may acquire said private sewer by condemnation in the method provided by said Chapter 349 of the Acts of 1904 <em>{§§ <cite data-path="20|§20-8">20-8</cite> to <cite data-path="20|§20-10">20-10</cite> of <cite data-path="20">this subtitle</cite>}</em>;

provided, however, that when more than one private sewer shall exist in the same part of any street, alley or other way, then the said Commission shall be required to acquire, in the manner and upon the terms hereinbefore set forth, only that private sewer which in the opinion of said Commission will be best suited for said sewerage system, and provided that whenever any private sewer has been built since the passage of said Chapter 349 of the Acts of 1904, or shall hereafter be built upon any agreement with the Sewerage Commission that said sewer should thereafter be taken over by said Commission at a price or on terms agreed upon, then said sewer shall be so taken over by said Commission;

and in the event of any disagreement or dispute between the owner or owners of property or properties or of private sewers, or their representatives, and the said Sewerage Commission as to the location of any lateral sewer or sewers intended for house connections, or the capacity, location or suitableness of any private sewer, or the cost of constructing and laying a sewer similar to any private sewer, then the matter shall be referred to a board composed of the four City officials now constituting the Board of Public Improvements of the City of Baltimore, under rules to be adopted by said Board, and the decision of said Board as to any of said matters so referred to said Board shall be final and binding on said Sewerage Commission and the party or parties appealing, and forty days before the work of construction of any lateral sewer or sewers intended for house connections shall be begun, said Sewerage Commission shall give notice by publication in three or more of the daily newspapers of Baltimore City of the general location of said sewer, and any property owner or other person interested in the location of said sewer or in any private sewer intended to be used or which might be used in connection with or instead of the intended sewer, may, within ten days after the first publication of said notice, apply to said Sewerage Commission for detailed information as to the location and construction of said sewer and as to what, if any, private sewers are intended to be used, and said person may, within said ten days, protest in writing to said Sewerage Commission against any part of the proposed plan of said sewer, and thereupon said Sewerage Commission, at some time within a period beginning ten days after said first publication and ending twenty days after said publication, shall make its determination in writing with reference to said protest, which determination shall be open to public inspection;

and any person who has thus protested, or any other person interested in said determination may, within a period beginning twenty days after said first publication and ending thirty days after said first publication, appeal in writing to a board composed of the four City officials now constituting the Board of Public Improvements, against said determination of said Sewerage Commission with reference to said protest, and said Board so composed, within a period beginning thirty days after said first publication and ending forty days after said first publication, shall make its decision with reference to said protest, which decision, as above mentioned, shall be final and binding upon said Sewerage Commission and the party or parties appealing or protesting.

For the purpose of preserving the sanitary condition of the City, the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore is hereby authorized to borrow money temporarily up to such an amount as may be necessary not exceeding the amount of the obligations or indebtedness of property owners to it, under the provisions of Ordinance No. 58, approved December 28, 1911, for the purpose of providing the City Engineer with the necessary funds to make the sewer connections and do the other work which he is authorized and directed to do by said ordinance, the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore is hereby authorized for the purpose of borrowing such money to give its note to be signed on behalf of the City by the Mayor, the Comptroller and the City Engineer, and to pledge as collateral the obligations or indebtedness of property owners to the City under said Ordinance No. 58 to an amount equal to the amount of the loan, and to renew such note in whole or in part from time to time, not exceeding the time of maturity of the collateral. The method of pledging such indebtedness from the owners of property under said Ordinance 58 as collateral for such loan shall be as follows:

The Director of Finance shall give a certificate over his hand that there is due to the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore a certain sum under said Ordinance No. 58 from the following property owners, giving the number of the property and the name of the owner, and the amount due on each, and that said indebtedness is not pledged for any other loan. Said certificate attached to and delivered with the note of the City, as above provided, shall constitute a pledge of the indebtedness of said parties to the City as collateral security for the said note, or any renewal thereof as above provided. The Director of Finance shall collect said indebtedness, as provided in said ordinance, just as if the same were not pledged, but shall pay over to the holder of any note given under Sections 638 and 639 <em>{<cite data-path="20|§20-12">this section</cite> and <cite data-path="20|§20-13">§20-13 of this subtitle</cite>}</em>, all collections of any of the indebtedness pledged as collateral therefor, and such holder shall credit all such payments on such note.

Ordinance No. 58 of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, approved December 28, 1911, is hereby ratified and confirmed, and every indebtedness accruing to the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore from any property owner in said City under and in pursuance of the terms of said ordinance is hereby declared to be a lien upon the property of such property owner as in said ordinance declared, and collectible as therein provided.