Outraged resident shares footage of beautiful harbor suffocated by major oil spill: 'Irreparable damage'

Early June was a distressing time for Baltimore residents — and even more so for the animals who inhabit its harbor — when a major 5,000-gallon oil spill from Johns Hopkins left waters greasy and animals slicked with oil.

One educator and PhD candidate, posting from the account name Literally Z (@itsliterally_z), shared disheartening photos of the scene on TikTok.

"A week ago, the Baltimore Harbor was healthy and beautiful as ever," she wrote, including two side-by-side photos of the water before and after the spill. "Now, it's being suffocated by the 2,000 gallons of oil that Johns Hopkins spilled."

The spill occurred when a routine refilling for the university hospital's backup generator led to several tanks overflowing, flooding into the sewage system, and going directly into the harbor. 

The investigation is still ongoing, according to news station WBAL TV11. It remains unclear whether or not there was a mechanical error at Johns Hopkins or if their third-party operator, who was refilling the tanks, was to blame. Whatever had happened, commenters were incensed by the damage. 

"Johns Hopkins has done irreparable damage to Baltimore," one person wrote. "They need to be held accountable to the highest degree."

The university has made it clear that it intends to fully fund all necessary cleanup and remediation efforts, according to reporting from CBS.

Literally Z also explained that there have been several other large oil spills in the last decade in the Baltimore Harbor, leaving conservationists fighting an uphill battle. Nevertheless, local officials and groups like Blue Water Baltimore had managed to achieve remarkable results, making June's spill all the more upsetting.

"It just got clean enough to see fish return because of years [of] conservation efforts," one commenter vented.

"I was genuinely so happy about hearing the progress made in cleaning up the harbor, and then saw the news about the spill and am devastated again," another person agreed. "It feels like good things never last."

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While work remains to be done, first responders were on the scene following the spill, cleaning wildlife and doing as much as they could to absorb excess oil from the water. Remediation efforts are still ongoing and will likely be needed for some time, noted Dr. Sam Sherchan, biologist at Morgan State University.

"The contaminated mud, when it gets stirred up again it can become toxic to wildlife," Sherchan told CBS. "Animals that come into contact with the water may become sick and die. In the long term, we want to see continuous monitoring of water and air to make sure that it's safe."

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