Aging water infrastructure at the root of Baltimore E. coli contamination, city officials say

Baltimore officials identified a likely cause of the E. coli contamination that left much of West Baltimore under a water boil advisory earlier this month, pointing to a series of failures stemming from the city’s aging water infrastructure. The explanation, which officials laid out in a hearing on the episode before the City Council Thursday, comes a few weeks after the city Department of Public Works warned residents of possible E. coli contamination in the Harlem Park and Sandtown-Winchester neighborhoods of West Baltimore. The city received positive tests of bacteria in the water system on Saturday, Sept. 3, but residents didn’t learn about the contamination until two days later, on Labor Day morning.