Baltimore is finally preparing to dredge Lake Montebello. And none too soon given the large amount of sediment in the lake, which could eventually impact the region’s drinking water supply already under strain due to a persistent drought.

After two false starts by the Department of Public Works to get the project on track, the mayor and Board of Estimates last week gave the green light to a West Coast company to restore the 56-acre lake’s capacity.

Best known for a 1.4-mile loop set aside for joggers, cyclists and strolling families, the man-made reservoir serves as a storage basin for impurities extracted from raw water processed into drinking water at the Montebello Water Filtration Plant.

The lake is currently one-third filled with sand, silt, trace metals and aluminum sulfate used to clarify cloudy water extracted from water coming from the Loch Raven and Pretty Boy reservoirs in Baltimore County.

Meanwhile, a washwater pond connected to Lake Montebello is now at 100% storage capacity, according to DPW.

The $24 million project is set to begin this fall and last until late 2028.

Dredging will take place 16 hours a day. And once “dewatered” on site to reduce its weight and bulk, the cake-like waste will be carted off at a rate of about 60 truckloads a day.

Drought Conditions

The project comes at a time when Baltimore and much of Maryland face a water shortage due to a prolonged lack of rain.

The shortfall has left Baltimore, Carroll, Cecil and Harford counties under severe drought conditions. Since July 31, 2025 for example, Baltimore County has recorded 31 inches of rain, down 11 inches from its yearly average of 42 inches.

Without spring showers replenishing the reservoirs, DPW has called on its 1.8 million customers to voluntarily restrict their use of water this summer. That includes reducing garden and lawn spraying, using commercial car washes that recycle water, taking shorter showers and running only filled dishwashers and washing machines.

The agency has also developed a backup plan if reservoir levels get too low. Last week it conducted tests of a mothballed 38-mile pipeline – nine feet in diameter and not used during the last two decades – from the Susquehanna River to the Montebello plant.

The test water was not treated at the Montebello plant and did not enter the water distribution system. Instead, it was diverted to Lake Montebello.

To accommodate the silty, brown river water, the lake’s surface was lowered two feet and excess water drained into Herring Run, which flows into Back River and the Chesapeake Bay.

Which points to the secondary importance of the dredging project: to ensure future compliance with environmental regulations.

Discharges of untreated water from Lake Montebello risk violating the 2002 consent decree between Baltimore and U.S. and state regulators. The court-ordered decree prohibits the release of raw sewage and other untreated water into local waterways and the Chesapeake.

Previous Postponements

American Process Group won the contract with a $23.9 million bid, which was midway between the city engineer’s estimate of $20 million and $30 million.

A subsidiary of Synagro Technologies, which operates a sludge drying facility at DPW’s Back River sewage plant, bid $24.9 million, and Mobile Dredging & Video Pipe asked for $29.5 million.

“Our decision is strictly based on lowest bid,” Blake Succa, deputy chief of engineering, told the Board of Estimates last Wednesday.

American Process won a similar contract to dredge Lake Montebello in February 2025, but the award was withdrawn at the last minute by DPW for unexplained reasons. A still earlier dredging contract was halted when the agency decided it needed more time to evaluate the scope of the project.

During those years of delays, roughly 10 million pounds of sediment and sludge accumulated in Lake Montebello and the washwater pond, based on DPW’s estimate that an average of 9,000 pounds of residues are deposited every day.

DPW says the paved walkway will be closed this fall as the contractor installs temporary concrete barriers and a turbidity curtain in the lake.

The public should have access to the walkway during the many months of actual dredging, the agency promises.