People who could afford it would leave the city in the summer when the stench was unbearable. The Great Fire of 1904 in Baltimore, though devastating, created the opportunity for the new sanitary engineering profession to rebuild Baltimore as a modern city. Urged on by the Public Health Department and the people of Baltimore, a commission was formed in 1904 in order to design an install a sewerage system. Storm drains that carried rainwater directly to the harbor were separate from the sewer pipes that carried waste water to the treatment plant before discharging into the bay. The Back River Disposal Works, as it was called then, was built on 450 acres on the western shore of the Back River near Essex.
Secondary treatment is the removal of dissolved solids by the action of microorganisms.
During 1912, the first full year of operation, the plant treated 12 million gallons of sewage each day. Service to 1.3 Million People Today, the Back River Waste Water Treatment Plant serves most of Baltimore City and a large portion of Baltimore County. A flow of 180 million gallons of sewage is treated each day for 1.3 million residents. In keeping with the objective of discharging an effluent as pure as technology allows, the treatment plant is currently being upgraded to provide advance treatment. The commitment of service to the people of Baltimore and protection for the Chesapeake Treatment Plant continues to be the goal of the Back River Waste Water Treatment Plant.