The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is urging Baltimore to deny a stormwater permit waiver that Johns Hopkins University is seeking for its Data Science and AI Institute (DSAI) project, citing multiple runoff control violations stemming from its work on the adjacent SNF Agora Institute building.

“JHU’s history of – and potentially ongoing – construction stormwater violations make it an inappropriate candidate for any stormwater management waiver,” wrote CBF’s Maryland executive director, Allison Colden, in a letter sent earlier this week to the Department of Public Works (DPW).

Local residents have been observing (and The Brew reporting on) instances of sediment-laden brown water cascading down Wyman Park Drive from the Agora project toward Remington Avenue and Stony Run following rainstorms.

“Photographic evidence provided by neighbors and a history of violations documented by the Maryland Department of the Environment [MDE] demonstrate the adverse impacts of JHU’s construction activities on Stony Run and the surrounding neighborhood,” wrote Colden, whose organization is focused on protecting Chesapeake Bay and its watershed.

Colden told DPW that the massive project – two buildings to encompass about 470,000 square feet on the southwest side of the Homewood campus – will have a “reasonably foreseeable and potentially significant impact on the chemical, physical and biological integrity of a tributary to the Chesapeake Bay.”

Residents say they have observed 16 incidences of construction site runoff from the Agora project, which appears to be nearing completion. The Bay Foundation letter points to multiple violations documented by the state:

• On August 26, 2025, MDE inspectors found the Agora building “in noncompliance” during a violation follow-up inspection.

“The inspectors found repeat violations from a July 28, 2025 inspection involving issues with silt fencing and labeling at the concrete washout station,” Colden said.

• On September 4, MDE visited the site again after complaints about stormwater runoff  “and determined additional investigation was required because it is possible ‘that there was a construction event’ that caused turbidity in Stony Run,” Colden wrote.

• Last month, MDE  found Hopkins could be subject to “significant penalties” for sediment discharge violations from February 2025 to August 2025 by its contractor on the Agora project, Consigli Construction. (The agency offered Hopkins the option to settle, without liability, for $8,648.)

JHU: DSAI will Reduce Hardscape

In an emailed response to The Brew, Hopkins said the university is “following the city of Baltimore’s environmental regulatory procedures, as we have done throughout this project.”

“For projects that take this step, filing a Stormwater Management Waiver/Variance Request is part of the city’s Department of Public Works review and approval process,” the statement said.

Contradicting CBF’s letter, Hopkins said the DSAI project will reduce the impervious surface, saying it “includes a reduction in the area of the site that is covered by surface parking and hardscape, thereby reducing the need for treatment of rainwater runoff.”

The Bay Foundation’s Colden said DSAI will increase the impervious surface area at Homewood by 4,790 square feet.

She noted that the project’s physical footprint dwarfs the next largest building on the campus (238,000 square feet).

The university’s did not address the violations MDE said took place at the Agora site last year, but it noted that in the March 18 letter by MDE offering to let Hopkins resolve the matter by paying a $8,648 penalty, the agency stated that Hopkins was currently “in compliance with its approved sediment control plan.”

Asked whether Hopkins has paid the penalty, an MDE spokesman said “the matter is still pending.”

In its reply today to The Brew, Hopkins said the site has permanent landscaping and storm control features in place “with a new contractor maintaining erosion control.” The statement described the DSAI project as “in full compliance with all city, state, and federal regulations governing environmental protections.”

“Baltimore is our hometown,” it concluded. “We want to see it prosper and maintain a healthy, beautiful environment – for residents today and for generations to come.”

Impact on Chesapeake Bay

Area residents pushing back against the DSAI project since it was announced in 2023 fought (and lost) a high-profile battle to stop the university from cutting down mature street trees as part of the project.

(Enthusing about the cultural and economic value of artificial intelligence research to the city, Baltimore officials signed off on the cutting after Hopkins promised to replace the trees and plant many more.)

But the residents have also been objecting to its overall environmental impact, in particular the placement of the north building at the edge of the steep slope above the Stony Run stream valley.

Polluted runoff from stormwater is one of the primary sources of pollution in the Bay watershed, causing turbidity and carrying nutrients and chemical contaminants that harm water quality and threaten wildlife.

“This is something that we’ve been working on for a long time now – trying to get the Chesapeake Bay Foundation involved in this,” said Hillary Gonzalez, of the group Sacred Parks and Waterways.

“I saw from the beginning how catastrophic this could be because Stony Run feeds into the Jones Falls, which is a tributary of  the Chesapeake Bay,” she said.

“The city needs to take a harder look”  – Matthew Stegman, CBF staff attorney.

The city’s own data show that the increasing volume of stormwater is overwhelming the Stony Run Pumping Station, creating sewage backups along three miles of deteriorated mains along and near Stony Run.

Four outfalls release sewage into the Jones Falls during storms because of these hydraulic limitations, DPW disclosed, in its latest report to EPA, noting it hopes to end the releases along Stony Run by 2030.

CBF Attorney Matthew Stegman, speaking with The Brew, said the group is hoping its strongly worded letter will have an impact on the Brandon Scott administration.

“Hopkins will say they are addressing these issues with their campus-wide stormwater management plan, but that is clearly not working,” Stegman said. “The city needs to take a harder look.”

“There’s a demonstrated history – between what they are planning to do and what they’ve been doing with the Agora project – that that particular site has a history of not controlling the stormwater runoff.”

Forest Land in Poor Shape

Among the points raised in Bay Foundation’s letter is a provision of the City Code that says special alternative management practices should only be used “when necessary.”

“Allowing JHU to forgo qualitative controls for DSAI in an era of increased precipitation and heavy rainfall events would be unreasonable and inconsistent with Baltimore City Code,” Colden wrote.

She said Stony Run is already at risk of slope erosion due to the poor condition of the university’s Forest Conservation Easement land, including the wooded area directly adjacent to the proposed DSAI site.

Citing a study by one of the University’s consultants, Steward Green, Colden noted that the area is lacking in midstory (young trees critical for forest succession), and that its understory is dominated by bare ground and invasive vines.

“In layman’s terms,” the forest that Hopkins maintains, “is aging, under increased stress, and unable to regenerate itself,” she wrote, leading to slope erosion, falling trees and shade reduction that could result in elevated water temperatures in Stony Run, a Class IV trout stream.

Summing up CBF’s argument, Colden said that, while “redevelopment may occasionally necessitate flexibility around stormwater requirements,” the university deserves extra scrutiny.

“We object to the persistent erosion of water quality in Stony Run thanks to lack of both a spirit of stewardship and conformation to the State’s sediment and erosion control laws,” she wrote.