Baltimore City Department of Public Works Information

The Baltimore City Department of Public Works (DPW) provides the highest quality drinking water every day to 1.8 million people in the Baltimore Metropolitan Area. We collect, filter, disinfect, and purify regional wastewater. We oversee urban streams, storm water management, and riparian restoration. We regulate recreational activities at our reservoirs. We do engineering, training, contracting, maintenance, security, billing, communications, human resources, and many other departmental functions. DPW also provides Solid Waste services. These include collection of household trash, recycling, and bulk, corner can placement and maintenance, mechanical street sweeping, and operation of drop-off centers and the landfill. We also clean and board vacant properties, operate a fleet of boats to clean the harbor, cut public grass strips, remove graffiti, perform rat eradication, and organize and assist with community cleanups. We work with other agencies on emergency operations and snow removal.