Baltimore Waterkeepers to Sue Vinegar Plant over Alleged Pollution in Key Tributary

Baltimore’s waterways watchdog group, Blue Water Baltimore, has announced it plans to sue Fleischmann’s Vinegar Company, alleging it has repeatedly leaked “acidic discharges” into the Jones Falls, the stream that leads to the Inner Harbor, the Patapsco River and, ultimately, the Bay. Blue Water Baltimore and the Chesapeake Legal Alliance, who is representing the organization, issued a Notice of Intent against Fleischmann’s, whose North Baltimore plant sits just upstream of the Jones Falls Trail. Blue Water Baltimore says acidic discharges, which can damage aquatic life in waterways, are continuously entering the stream from fissures in the facility’s concrete building. A fish kill in the Jones Falls in September 2021 happened “in the immediate vicinity” of Fleischmann’s, and the Maryland Department of the Environment found the facility’s de-chlorination system was out of order. Cody Matteson and Barbara Johnson, water quality scientists with Blue Water Baltimore, test waterways in 2021. Photo: Blue Water Baltimore Just over a year later, in October 2022, neighbors reported more dead fish and a strong vinegar smell near the Fleischmann’s plant. That’s when Blue Water Baltimore says it documented the acidic liquid flowing through cracks directly into the Jones Falls. “This action puts the power of enforcement
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