When Jen Ogle first alerted the city about the water geysering up from a pothole in front of her northeast Baltimore home in late January, temperatures in the 20’s and 30s had turned it into a river of ice flowing down the hill – on the roadway and even on the sidewalk.

“It was an inch thick in places – really dangerous – and it caused the snow to back up,” said Ogle, describing conditions in the 3000 block of Evergreen Avenue. “My neighbors and I were really concerned about it.”

But despite Ogle’s subsequent calls to 311 – she put in seven service requests, in all – the water is still flowing today, five weeks later.

After Ogle called, she said, crews would come out and dig up the street and leave a patch behind – sometimes causing temporary water outages for Ogle and her neighbors.

“But the water never stopped flowing – it has been going 24/7 continuously,” she said, noting that some service requests were, incorrectly, marked “closed.”

“The guys would come and badmouth the last crew that came, but they all ended up saying they couldn’t find the problem,” Ogle told The Brew.

She noted that the water flow appears to be getting stronger and that the road surface appears to be pulling away from the curb.

“I’m afraid the next thing to happen is going to be a sinkhole,” she said, recalling the huge sinkhole that opened up on Joppa Road three weeks ago after what the Baltimore city Department of Public Works (DPW) said was a break in a 12″ water main.

The water burbling up out of a deep pothole in Ogle’s Hamilton neighborhood [see VIDEO above] flowed downhill today. Most of it dumped into a drain a block away, some of it flowed further, past a group home and a dance studio and into a drain near Harford Road.

Aging and Collapsing

Asked to explain the problem on Evergreen Avenue and their plan for repairing it, DPW officials said they need “a few days to look into the matter.”

Water breaks are a standard feature in neighborhoods across Baltimore.

Some appear small, but keep flowing for months. Others are larger, occasionally creating sinkholes like the ones that swallowed cars in Canton earlier this month or the one that claimed three rowhouses on East North Avenue in 2022.

City officials typically point to Baltimore’s aging infrastructure and their Water Main Replacement Program when these breaks and collapses occur.

One of those replacement projects is coming soon to Ogle’s neighborhood, according to a notice from DPW that residents recently received. It provides details about Water Contract 1279, to commence in March or April.

The letter is meant to prepare residents for the project, warning that “the contractor will saw cut the pavement and evacuate a trench” and that there will be above-ground water mains, “a temporary interruption in water service,” possible traffic detours, jackhammering and more.

What has Ogle worried is the completion date: February 2027.

“Is this why they’re not fixing this? Are they putting us off because of this project?” she said. “Are we going to have to live with this for this whole two-year project?”

“Are we going to have to live with this for this whole two-year pipe replacement project?”

Ogle said she’s hoping the city can fix not only their break, but those plaguing other neighborhoods across Baltimore.

Another question is the role the water losses play in residents’ soaring water and sewer bills.

Starting this month, residential water bills will increase by an average of 10%, followed by 9% jumps in July 2025 and July 2026.

The Brew reported in 2018 that Baltimore was losing a third of its treated water. An audit report at the time disclosed that, in 2015, 35.1% of the water released from Baltimore’s water treatment plants was “lost” before it reached the homes and businesses of city and county customers.

When the losses were discussed at a Board of Estimates meeting, then-comptroller Joan Pratt asked if the city had a continuing problem with water losses that exceed its 25% target.

The DPW officials present at the meeting did not answer her question.