© Baltimore Sun/Luke BroadwaterDamian Henson (at podium), 43, of Edmondson Village, says he received a water turn-off notice from the city over what he believes is an erroneous bill.
But records reviewed by The Baltimore Sun show the city's enforcement has been starkly uneven.
While large commercial properties owe the biggest amounts, not one has been shut off. All of the service cuts so far have been to homes.
And while the majority of homes with unpaid bills are in the city, nearly 90 percent of shut-offs have been in Baltimore County. Dundalk and Gwynn Oak have each had more service cuts than all of Baltimore.
Baltimore County Councilman Todd Crandell, a Republican who represents Dundalk, said he found it "odd" that his community, with a population of less than 64,000, saw more enforcement than a city more than 10 times that size. He has asked officials to verify the accuracy of their data.
"There have been a lot of billing errors and mistakes," he said.
The numbers also trouble Charly Carter, director of the advocacy group Maryland Working Families.
"If the city can shut off 1,600 working families from their water, but hasn't shut off even one commercial account, I think that speaks volumes about where their priorities are," she said.
Comment: The concentration of money and power is in the hands of powerful greedy corporations who consider the populace "useless eaters" who don't deserve water, a basic human right. As a result, the U.S. is descending into unimaginable poverty - a clear sign being that these people cannot afford to pay the smallest bill in their households.