Marks: Father's Day outage proves need for regional water authority

On Father’s Day, hundreds of my constituents in southern Perry Hall suddenly discovered that their water was out.

In homes from Necker Avenue to Manorfield Road, families who were preparing for get-togethers and picnics were forced to cancel their plans. It was the second weekend in less than a month that the same area had been affected by a water outage.

Our water system is largely controlled by Baltimore City, and I thank those city personnel and contractors who must also miss time with their families to respond to emergencies like this incident.

The Father’s Day water outage, however, illustrates a larger issue: the need for structural changes to the way we regulate our water infrastructure.

In 2019, the Baltimore County Council passed a resolution that called for the creation of a regional water authority. Such authorities exist throughout the United States, including in Montgomery and Prince Georges Counties, where the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission regulates water for hundreds of thousands of residents and businesses.

In Baltimore County, we continue to have a confusing, fragmented arrangement in which Baltimore City is the lead for maintenance, repairs and billing. There is really no accountability for Baltimore County taxpayers, nor for many other 1.8 million residents spread across other jurisdictions.

While the General Assembly created a Baltimore Regional Water Governance Model Workgroup in 2023, that committee failed to follow through on the type of sweeping recommendations needed to structurally improve our water service.

The workgroup did consider some shorter-term steps, such as requiring more communication and coordination between the city and the county on long-term planning.

Other ideas included the establishment of a joint office to manage water bills and customer service, instead of solely an office run by Baltimore City, and the creation of a rate-setting advisory board that could comment about water costs.

I still believe we need to transition toward a regional water authority.

This is the type of bold improvement that could improve the lives of nearly two million residents and businesses.

Opponents of a regional water authority have complained that this move could lead to water shutoffs, water privatization and the loss of potentially thousands of unionized positions within city and county governments.

Those are fair concerns. But the status quo is clearly not working. It is certainly not a 21st-century model, and I hope that the General Assembly will take up this cause in 2025.