Jones Falls

The Jones Falls begins as a small stream in Baltimore County near Garrison at the intersection of Caves and Garrison Road (39.41771° -76.75750°). About after Stony Run, and after passing by the Baltimore Streetcar Museum, the CSXT-operated Baltimore Belt Line bridges the river, bound for the Howard Street Tunnel. The Jones Falls then immediately passes underneath North Avenue. Just south of North Avenue, the Amtrak Northeast Corridor enters the valley upon exiting the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel and bridging the Jones Falls, with Howard Street Bridge directly above this intersection. MD 25 ends shortly after (splitting into the one-way couplet of eastbound Lanvale Street and westbound Lafayette Avenue), with the Jones Falls Trail joining city streets, and the Light Rail also leaves the valley to join Howard Street. After the rapid succession of bridges, the Jones Falls almost immediately enters a tunnel, the Jones Falls Conduit, which curves to flow directly underneath I-83 (39.30896° -76.61964°). After passing by Baltimore's Pennsylvania Station, situated directly in the valley, the Northeast Corridor exits the valley, and the Jones Falls Conduit and I-83 curve sharply to the south. The river and highway continue to Fayette Street. Here, I-83 ends; two blocks south of this point, the Jones Falls exits the conduit and flows several more blocks before it empties into the east side of the Inner Harbor (39.28657° -76.60457°) near Mr. Trash Wheel. ==Future==

As far back as 1990, city-sponsored planning studies showed support for the idea of partially demolishing I-83 and thus daylighting the Jones Falls. More recent suggestions include a long-range plan proposed by Marc Szarkowski, while he was working for the Philadelphia firm Dremodeling, and a more immediate and concrete plan commissioned by the city from Baltimore-based Rummel, Klepper & Kahl in 2009. The Szarkowski vision is wide ranging, including infill housing, an expansion of Penn Station, a system of roundabouts, a multi-story sculpture and several new, buried transit lines. Szarkowski has publicly acknowledged the extremely ambitious and long-range nature of the plan. The RK&K study was more limited, assessing only the area from Fayette Street to Chase Street. The long-range Szarkowski concept includes selected portions of the watershed from as far north as Woodberry, though with significantly less engineering detail included. A civic group, Friends of the Jones Falls, is active in advocating for the daylighting of the river. == Legal issues ==

On April 5, 2023, Blue Water Baltimore, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group, filed a lawsuit against the Kerry Group, the parent of Fleishmann's Vinegar Co., the nation's largest vinegar manufacturer. The company was accused of polluting the water channels in Jones Falls with illegal acidic chemicals, causing around 1,000 fish to die beginning in 2021. The announcement of the shutdown came the same day as environmental testing at the facility from the state was planned to commence. A spokesperson for Kerry stated that “The company will transfer production from Baltimore to other facilities as part of a broader consolidation of activity within the network,”. The company did not comment on if there were any layoffs caused by the shutdown, but they did not file layoff notices with the Maryland Department of Labor. A test from the Maryland Department of the Environment conducted on Dec. 20, 2023 found that a small amount of green dye was visible in Jones Falls just below the back wall of the facility. Earlier that day, Maryland environmental officials stated that red and green dye might be seen in the Jones Falls waters, however this was not said to pose a threat to life. ==See also==