Water/Sewage Drain codes? (Baltimore: house, to buy, live in)

[MCal]

I live in a row home in Baltimore and my neighbors seem to have their sump pump or some other kind of sewage drainage dumping to their backyard and then spilling into the alley. The smell is terrible and it attracts a ridiculous amount of bugs during the summer. Is this within code?

Last week we had to have our main sewage drain line replaced ($5200) because the tree roots of these same neighbors infiltrated our drain pipe causing it to backup to our house.

I'm thinking they may have had the same problem, but instead of spending the money to fix it properly, they just ran pvc from their basement to their backyard/alley.

My wife called the county/state and they came out today and said our neighbors are really going to hate us now. I'm guessing they are violating code.

I just wasn't sure what the code was.

[sl0622]

Man I just got intimately familiar with Baltimore City building codes (which they incorporate national and international standards by reference a lot) bc I'm trying to buy a house that has some violations - - H&LL yes your neighbor is in violation of a Bmore Building Code....
[LEFT]2.19 C[SIZE=2][SIZE=2]ONNECTION TO [/SIZE][/SIZE]W[SIZE=2][SIZE=2]ATER AND [/SIZE][/SIZE]S[SIZE=2][SIZE=2]EWER [/SIZE][/SIZE]S[SIZE=2][SIZE=2]YSTEMS[/LEFT]
[/SIZE][/SIZE][LEFT]2.19.1 Availability of Public Water and Sewer[/LEFT]
[LEFT]The water distribution and sewer system of any building in which plumbing fixtures are
installed must be connected to a public water supply system and to a public sewer system
unless otherwise authorized by a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit
issued under Title 9 of the State Environment Article. Private septic tank systems may only[/LEFT]
be installed with the written permission of the Building Official.

Check out this link: http://www.baltimorecity.gov/Portals...dg,%20Fire.pdf This spells out all building codes (you'll need to google the referenced codes to fill in the holes).

I'm not 100% sure who you would report this stuff to - perhaps Dept. of Housing? 311? I would rather talk to someone personally at Dept. of Housing and demand they send someone out.

That sounds really gross and really unsafe, actually.

[remstone]

Well, you can't connect a sump pump to the sewer line. But yes, it would be illegal to dump sewage out. It sounds like the neighbor has the same problem as the OP - a backed up or broken sewer line.

[End-User]

I know the rats must love your neighbor.