Arising out of the 2019 Union Collective Green Infrastructure Master Plan (referenced below the Major Projects toolbar interface) is a major environmental remediation project on privately-owned Baltimore City property in the spring of 2025.
The project entailed the installation of an artificial wetland on a 0.52-acre site between the Jones Falls and the Union Collective asphalt parking lot uphill of it. The purpose of this installation is to intercept stormwater runoff coming from the paved lot, to clean it of toxic vehicular fluids and dust that regularly settle on impervious surfaces between rain storms. When the polluted stormwater is running into the wetland, it is filtered through the soils and aquatic vegetation rather than fouling the Jones Falls below. Constructed wetlands are a Green Infrastructure Best Management Practice.
This project already hosts a colorful array of wildlife, including birds, waterfowl, amphibians and insects.
For the first phase of the project, the FTJF was awarded $204,348 by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, $73,984 from the Chesapeake Bay Trust which financial partner included the Baltimore City Department of Public Works, and $42,000 awarded by two Baltimore-based private foundations.
Phase 2 is expected to start construction the spring of 2026 with a hoped-for dedication around Earth Day in April. It will feature an accessible boardwalk partially rimming the wetland, and educational signage. Its funding source is a $142,075 grant from litigation settlement proceeds of the Fleischmann’s Vinegar plant fish kills in the Jones Falls until it was permanently shuttered. It has since been demolished.
-The Editors
Friends of The Jones Falls 