DPW Worker's Body Found In Water At Baltimore Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A worker was found dead Monday night in the wastewater at the Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant in Curtis Bay, officials said.
The woman, a supervisor for the Department of Public Works and was walking along a catwalk inside the building when she fell 20 feet into the water. Her body was later found in a sorting facility, 600 feet away.
"Inside the water filtration plant there's a catwalk going across a water filtration system. She was walking across the catwalk and fell," said Blair Adams with Baltimore City Fire.
Officials said they got the call around 7 p.m. Monday night after employees noticed a grate was missing inside the building and their supervisor was nowhere to be found.
"They went looking for her they saw the grate missing there were two items that belong to her that were in the location where the missing grate was, which was a glove and a walkie-talkie they immediately went looking for her they went to see if her vehicle was here, they went around the building searching for her, they made attempts to call her cell phone which immediately went to voicemail," Adams said.
"As soon as it is safely practical- every facility, every catwalk, every tank will be inspected to make sure they are safe that everything is in place that it is secure that it is not compromised," said Jeff Raymond, chief of communications at Baltimore DPW.
Employees said she was a city employee for 20 years and worked at this facility for three years. They said her friendship will be missed.
"This is someone they know, someone they've worked side by side with for quite some time, this is going to hit a lot of people hard," Raymond said.
DPW officials said they have plans to investigate what happened and have crews on scene Tuesday to meet with employees and help them get through this difficult time.
