Lauding Baltimore’s revised sewer system clean-up agreement with the federal government as “the product of hard work and intense negotiation” and “the best path forward for citizens,” Department of Public Works Director Rudy Chow urged listeners at a meeting last night to focus on the future.

But citizens from the neighborhoods hardest hit by a spike in basement sewage backups – caused by closed-off sewage outfalls as DPW tried, unsuccessfully, to comply with the original 2002 consent decree – kept trying to steer the discussion back to the reeking present.

“We get raw sewage – you understand what I’m saying? Fecal matter in our homes!” said Helena Hicks, a longtime civil rights activist who lives in the Northwest area most affected by the backups.

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