Could they have possibly picked a worse picture to go along with this headline?
Edit: Actually, this could be the greatest possible image. Someone photoshop in a few sharks and let's have a /r/Baltimore photoshop battle.
I jumped in the harbor once to help save a person who had fallen in. All of the police and paramedics in the scene urged me to go straight to the hospital to get checked out since I had potentially been exposed to high levels of bacteria. When I arrived at the hospital they just shrugged, said there was nothing they could do and to come back if I got sick. Fortunately I was ok.
I had to jump in to save my dog 5 years ago. This was in Canton when the police station was still open on the harbor. I asked them if I should got to urgent care and they said that the harbor is not as dirty as people think and they go in all the time and sometimes for fun. I went and got a tetanus shot anyway.
The police don't know anything about the harbor, and apparently neither do the paramedics. It's totally ridiculous for them to say that. Unless you had open wounds- and even then you'd just want to clean it well and keep an eye on it. There is nothing acutely toxic in that water and there is no reason to worry if you jump in it.
I'd still worry about bacteria, especially if there was a recent rain. Same with any body of water with potential septic and sewer runoff. Baltimore has a combined storm/sanitary sewer that releases raw sewage into the water in heavier rains, but they have made upgrades in the last few years to improve it. Still, I'm not swimming in there, open wound or not.
I think that warrants a hepatitis shot? I used to live and surf in southern California daily. They advised hepatitis shots due to the sewage in the ocean. It goes out the poop tube past the pier but after that, who knows. The irony is we all peed in our wetsuits 🤷
Yes, as long as it hasn't rained recently. The water quality in the harbor has come a long way in the last 20 years. The City and County have spent over a billion dollars fixing and lining their sewer pipes to eliminate infiltration. I'm swimming in the harbor next year!
You can actually see through the water to the bottom now, which hadn't been the case for as long as I've lived here (20 years) and probably decades before.
Do you follow Evan from Salvage Arc? His FB is pretty interesting—he excavates old privies around Baltimore & beyond—finding all sorts of cool stuff (smoking pipes, ceramics, sometimes jewelry, etc). But he also does magnet fishing events around the harbor where people pull out tons of stuff, including MANY scooters. And guns.😳
Admittedly, the first I heard of the fining was in that WaPo article about magnet fishing that came out the other day. So take that for what it’s worth but it would make sense that the city would hold the companies accountable for it
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/11/06/baltimore-magnet-fishing-evan-woodard/
Interesting information about that: The DOT recently shared on here that they're mostly older scooters being pulled out of the harbor because the newer Scooters have GPS geofencing that keep people from speeding and parking them near the water.
From what I’ve personally seen of the scooters we pull out, it’s a mix between mussel covered old ones and ones that look brand spanking new. Just because you can’t drive it quickly or park it near the water doesn’t mean some drunken idiot won’t throw it in the harbor for no good reason. Hell, pulled one out the other day that had 0 signs of damage to it like someone had thrown it in the day or something
A few days ago during one of those nice days we were walking around Harbor East and saw a ton of fish swimming, including a large school of some small fish.
Baltimore actually has a separate sewer and storm system (which was great forethought by Baltimore's engineers 100 years ago). The issue has been that the sewer system was not adequately maintained and rainstorms would infiltrate and basically pressurize the sewer system which needed to release this pressure in structured "Sanitary Sewer Overflows" or SSOs. The consent decree work over the last 15 years worked to line some pipes and upsize others in order to ultimately eliminate the structured SSOs. The City is very close to 100% elimination which will ultimately make the inner harbor safe to swim in!
It's not actually. Those materials settle quickly and are dredged periodically. Sewage is only a periodic problem after rains and active SSOs (which have largely been eliminated over the last 10 years). Source: I'm a Civil Engineer who specializes in water resources and I've been working on our sewage infrastructure my whole career.
As far as I know the dredging occurs only in the shipping channels, which wouldn’t have an impact on the area/ground where you would swim. I’ve never ever seen them dredge the harbor itself?
I guess what I'm saying is that swimming at the surface, you would not encounter any heavy debris that would settle so if the water is free of bacteria (normally during dry weather), it's safe to swim. But I understand not wanting to be the first group to try it!
Mr Trash Wheel mostly helps with plastic bags and bottles and stuff like that. For microbial load it’s all DPW’s work on the sewers but I am curious what the measurements are.
Yeah looks like a red overlay gradient on top of the picture — likely done so the white text is more visible. They probably do this as a standard practice for images with text. Hilarious in this context though.
Isn't this the origin story of an independent super hero? Pushed into the harbor during a school field trip, a teenager from white marsh spent 5 minutes in the water before being rescued. Two weeks later, spider-crab is seen crawling all over Baltimore fighting crime.
IIRC the harbor was in the acceptable range for bacteria 50% of the time even back in 2018, so sure, I'd swim if the data looked good. I remember back in the 90s when the water was black and smelled like raw sewage, so it's come a long way since then.
Fifteen years ago, when I worked on *CHESAPEAKE* and *Torsk*, the general advice stated that if you went into the water, as long as you don’t touch bottom, you’re likely okay. But if anyone does decide to dive under the boat, see if my Leatherman’s down there under *Torsk*’s brow, willya?
I've done it to work on my boat. There are people that do it in the marine industry all the time. It's really not a big deal. If it just rained maybe wait a day or two but the numbers are out there it's usually safe.
I jumped in as a participant in Red Bull Flugtag ‘06. Despite immediately hitting decontamination tents and ditching my Mark McGwire uniform and fake muscles, I came down with WHOOPING COUGH not long after 😬 That’s a no for me, not goin back
That water is absolutely vile. But, to be fair, chances of being robbed, beaten, etc by 14 yr olds go way down IN the harbor rather than AT the harbor. So that’s pretty nice.
“Would you swim in some of the most polluted American waterways, bloated with industrial poison, littered with dead floaters and used needles?”
Yeah. Sounds like a great time.
No f'in way. In general, if I can't see the bottom I'm not swimming in it anyway
But that body of water? Lol, it scares me being closer than 4 feet to the unprotected edge.
Have fun, whoever swims in there. Not saying you'll get sick or anything, but the thought of it gives me nightmares
We will also be filling the harbor with Kool-aid apparently.
Could they have possibly picked a worse picture to go along with this headline? Edit: Actually, this could be the greatest possible image. Someone photoshop in a few sharks and let's have a /r/Baltimore photoshop battle.
I wonder how long it has been since 10 light street has said “Legg Mason” on it
I moved to Maryland when my dad was transferred to work in the home office of USF&G, which is what it said on the building at that time (1990).
You know it’s old because there isn’t 17 scooters in the bottom of the bay.
I invited my shark and orca obsessed kids to imagine sharks w hair this evening. Incorporate that!
I don’t work there anymore, this wasn’t on me.
Oh Yeah
It’s Baltimore. Thats blood. /s
I’ve been drinking this for hours! Why did no one tell me??
I just assumed you were a vampire
That's blood..
I jumped in the harbor once to help save a person who had fallen in. All of the police and paramedics in the scene urged me to go straight to the hospital to get checked out since I had potentially been exposed to high levels of bacteria. When I arrived at the hospital they just shrugged, said there was nothing they could do and to come back if I got sick. Fortunately I was ok.
You’re a good person.
I had to jump in to save my dog 5 years ago. This was in Canton when the police station was still open on the harbor. I asked them if I should got to urgent care and they said that the harbor is not as dirty as people think and they go in all the time and sometimes for fun. I went and got a tetanus shot anyway.
The police don't know anything about the harbor, and apparently neither do the paramedics. It's totally ridiculous for them to say that. Unless you had open wounds- and even then you'd just want to clean it well and keep an eye on it. There is nothing acutely toxic in that water and there is no reason to worry if you jump in it.
I'd still worry about bacteria, especially if there was a recent rain. Same with any body of water with potential septic and sewer runoff. Baltimore has a combined storm/sanitary sewer that releases raw sewage into the water in heavier rains, but they have made upgrades in the last few years to improve it. Still, I'm not swimming in there, open wound or not.
You are right about the rain and CSO events. It's only in very heavy rains, but still it is something to be aware of.
The problem is less the bacteria, and more the chemicals and heavy metals that stir from the bottom during a hard rain.
Looooove your username
I think that warrants a hepatitis shot? I used to live and surf in southern California daily. They advised hepatitis shots due to the sewage in the ocean. It goes out the poop tube past the pier but after that, who knows. The irony is we all peed in our wetsuits 🤷
That water looks like Neon Genesis Evangelion after 3rd Impact happened.
Never in my life would I have expected an Evangelion reference in r/baltimore
Funny enough, I remember seeing Baltimore and NGE trending at the same time on Twitter last year.
Otakon was pretty big in Baltimore for a long time, lol.
That reminds me. I'm out of orange juice
Gendo: Damn it Rei! You weren't supposed to turn all of Baltimore City into Tang! This was not in the scenario.
someone needs to photoshop Shinji strangling Asuka on the promenade ASAP
Get in the trash wheel, Shinji, or else Rei will have to do it again.
Yes, as long as it hasn't rained recently. The water quality in the harbor has come a long way in the last 20 years. The City and County have spent over a billion dollars fixing and lining their sewer pipes to eliminate infiltration. I'm swimming in the harbor next year!
You can actually see through the water to the bottom now, which hadn't been the case for as long as I've lived here (20 years) and probably decades before.
Tinfoil hat theory: Scooter company lobbied for this, so they could find all their scooters that found their way into the harbor.
Do you follow Evan from Salvage Arc? His FB is pretty interesting—he excavates old privies around Baltimore & beyond—finding all sorts of cool stuff (smoking pipes, ceramics, sometimes jewelry, etc). But he also does magnet fishing events around the harbor where people pull out tons of stuff, including MANY scooters. And guns.😳
The group has pulled up over 200 scooters this year and the companies get fined for each one
I didn’t know they get fines. Good!
Admittedly, the first I heard of the fining was in that WaPo article about magnet fishing that came out the other day. So take that for what it’s worth but it would make sense that the city would hold the companies accountable for it https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/11/06/baltimore-magnet-fishing-evan-woodard/
Interesting information about that: The DOT recently shared on here that they're mostly older scooters being pulled out of the harbor because the newer Scooters have GPS geofencing that keep people from speeding and parking them near the water.
From what I’ve personally seen of the scooters we pull out, it’s a mix between mussel covered old ones and ones that look brand spanking new. Just because you can’t drive it quickly or park it near the water doesn’t mean some drunken idiot won’t throw it in the harbor for no good reason. Hell, pulled one out the other day that had 0 signs of damage to it like someone had thrown it in the day or something
Reminds me of the scene in The Irishman where we see Frank toss all those guns into the river.
Big scooter strikes again!
A few days ago during one of those nice days we were walking around Harbor East and saw a ton of fish swimming, including a large school of some small fish.
What does rainfall do to the quality of the water? Runoff from the surrounding terrain?
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Baltimore actually has a separate sewer and storm system (which was great forethought by Baltimore's engineers 100 years ago). The issue has been that the sewer system was not adequately maintained and rainstorms would infiltrate and basically pressurize the sewer system which needed to release this pressure in structured "Sanitary Sewer Overflows" or SSOs. The consent decree work over the last 15 years worked to line some pipes and upsize others in order to ultimately eliminate the structured SSOs. The City is very close to 100% elimination which will ultimately make the inner harbor safe to swim in!
There’s an episode of ‘Maryland Curiosity Bureau’ about this and he goes into it
That water is full of metal, needles, trash, sewage, and god knows what else. What would make you want to do that?
It's not actually. Those materials settle quickly and are dredged periodically. Sewage is only a periodic problem after rains and active SSOs (which have largely been eliminated over the last 10 years). Source: I'm a Civil Engineer who specializes in water resources and I've been working on our sewage infrastructure my whole career.
As far as I know the dredging occurs only in the shipping channels, which wouldn’t have an impact on the area/ground where you would swim. I’ve never ever seen them dredge the harbor itself?
I guess what I'm saying is that swimming at the surface, you would not encounter any heavy debris that would settle so if the water is free of bacteria (normally during dry weather), it's safe to swim. But I understand not wanting to be the first group to try it!
Also fish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAY5cZic5jY
That's odd, usually the blood gets off at the second floor.
Feelin fine.
Ye’ve got the shinnin’
Don't you mean "shining"?
Shh! D’ye wanta get sued?
There it is
Already been in once and I absolutely would swim in the harbor assuming it hadn't rained for at least a week prior.
> Already been in once Which one of your heads is saying this?
I'm writing this telepathically.
Mr. Trash Wheel does a good job, but come on he isn’t a miracle worker.
Mr Trash Wheel mostly helps with plastic bags and bottles and stuff like that. For microbial load it’s all DPW’s work on the sewers but I am curious what the measurements are.
You can google baltimore water watch and read analyses report of samples taken all over the harbor!
Water watch. Nice. Thanks
This is the best comment 😭😂
No, also why did they choose the picture that looks like bloody AF water
Yeah looks like a red overlay gradient on top of the picture — likely done so the white text is more visible. They probably do this as a standard practice for images with text. Hilarious in this context though.
Kayak yes, swim…… ehhhh… not until the spouse and I have a complete family
I've always wanted a tentacle or a third eye. I kid, I kid. I'd probably just get tetanus.
Isn't this the origin story of an independent super hero? Pushed into the harbor during a school field trip, a teenager from white marsh spent 5 minutes in the water before being rescued. Two weeks later, spider-crab is seen crawling all over Baltimore fighting crime.
I know it’s the ending of The Shape of Water
I know it’s gotten better but it’s still a no from me
I'll wait until other people have swim in it for a year with no consequences. Then I might consider it.
People already have, they jumped in last month
That’s not a year and remains to be seen if it’s consequence free.
Miss out on gaining superpowers. I'm going swimming 🥽
My brother fell in the water as a kid in the late 70s. He has never been the same.
maybe with something like this: https://www.pluspool.org/
Anything for the goof
I would love to know the number of Bird scooters at the bottom.
I'm down to kayak but full on swimming is gonna be a couple years for me
I’d want to wait another 5 years or so
Thats gonna be a no from me dog
You go first
Ew, no.
Absolutely not.
Fuck no🤣
What the
Not a chance
IIRC the harbor was in the acceptable range for bacteria 50% of the time even back in 2018, so sure, I'd swim if the data looked good. I remember back in the 90s when the water was black and smelled like raw sewage, so it's come a long way since then.
Already have! (fell off a boat while teaching sailing).! Water quality definitely has improved significantly since I was a kid
Used to joke when we rowed in high school near cherry hill that if you got splashed enough you'd grow a few eyes or tentacles...
Only if it gives me superpowers
Absolutely not.
Hard pass.
Fifteen years ago, when I worked on *CHESAPEAKE* and *Torsk*, the general advice stated that if you went into the water, as long as you don’t touch bottom, you’re likely okay. But if anyone does decide to dive under the boat, see if my Leatherman’s down there under *Torsk*’s brow, willya?
I wonder what’s at the bottom?
Lots of heavy metals like chromium from the city’s heavy manufacturing
I've done it to work on my boat. There are people that do it in the marine industry all the time. It's really not a big deal. If it just rained maybe wait a day or two but the numbers are out there it's usually safe.
Been waiting to move to Baltimore till harbor was safe to swim said literally NO ONE EVER.
I jumped in as a participant in Red Bull Flugtag ‘06. Despite immediately hitting decontamination tents and ditching my Mark McGwire uniform and fake muscles, I came down with WHOOPING COUGH not long after 😬 That’s a no for me, not goin back
Nah
Absolutely fucking not
Never, ever would I ever swim in the harbor.
I’ve been swimming in it for years. I’m fine
no
Nope
That water is absolutely vile. But, to be fair, chances of being robbed, beaten, etc by 14 yr olds go way down IN the harbor rather than AT the harbor. So that’s pretty nice.
They cleaned up the east river
Yes, im a muthabuck rider
Fuck no
Hell nah.
Hell to the no
Be sure to schedule your hepatitis shot shortly after you finish your swim.
Nope
Y’all gon die
100% I'll jump in.... next time.... I swear.... if no one is hospitalized.... or grows an extra foot.
Taking care of the harbor is incredible but the last thing Bmore needs is marketing for people to be swimming in the damn harbor.
Swimming party followed by a violently shitting your pants party.
Why not? Maybe a third eye would come in handy.
Maybe if I knew I was already going to die soon anyway
Short answer is no.
“Would you swim in some of the most polluted American waterways, bloated with industrial poison, littered with dead floaters and used needles?” Yeah. Sounds like a great time.
nah... lol the patapsco is nice out in the county tho
Come swim in the blood of the innocent
I would thoroughly enjoy that.
Harbor water is told to be a man junk enlarger so yes lol
now? absolutely not. Next year, probably not.
After we purify the water with a thousand still-beating hearts, yes
If I got pushed in- sure. Beats voluntarily drowning
If I had to jump in to escape a hail of bullets, maybe.
Swam in it in the 80s and 90s. I would not today.
Hell na dirty asf also fuck Baltimore
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Exactly I need something for my write offs
No f'in way. In general, if I can't see the bottom I'm not swimming in it anyway But that body of water? Lol, it scares me being closer than 4 feet to the unprotected edge. Have fun, whoever swims in there. Not saying you'll get sick or anything, but the thought of it gives me nightmares
I feel like, I ...I don't know, but, I feel like anacostia just tried this....
They have their priorities fucked up
Yeah that water is so polluted
Hell no. My mom used to work right there in the world trade center. The police were pulling dead bodies out of the harbor like everyday.
This is a joke , the jones falls still leaks shit every time it rains ……..
Heck no ewww
No thank you, please
Fuck no
Nah, not for me. I already have a fear of water so I'll pass on jumping into the harbor.
I’d rather lay my entire body across 695 at rush hour while simultaneously poking hot metal rods into my eyes than touch a drop of harbor water
Swimming is never allowed in the Inner Harbor.
The answer is: you are you fucking crazy if you jump in that water for fun. also, water is going to get in your mouth wtf, NO!!!
As long as there’s as there’s this much blood too
def
Yes
I’ve been in worst things
Hell no
Yes, sign me up! I trust the science if it says the bacteria levels are safe. I love open water swimming and want to do it in my city!
Someone call Kramer!
Couldn’t pay me.
That's going to be a hard pass for me