Baltimoreans will have to wait a bit longer to jump into the Inner Harbor, after the second annual Harbor Splash event, originally scheduled for this Saturday, has been postponed due to the impacts from heavy rain Thursday evening.
“This has been an unusually rainy spring,” said Adam Lindquist, vice president of the Waterfront Partnership, in a statement. “While we had to cancel the Baltimore Floatilla last week due to storms and now postpone Harbor Splash, we remain fully committed to the continued restoration and activation of the Baltimore Harbor as a place for recreation, celebration, and connection.”
The new date for the Harbor Splash will be Saturday, July 19.
The 200 people who signed up to participate in the Harbor Splash will automatically have their registrations transferred to next weekend. Registrants can also contact the Waterfront Partnership to request a refund if they are unable to make the new date.
The Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore determined in 2023 that the Inner Harbor is safe for swimming under the right conditions, and they invited the public to test the waters during the inaugural Harbor Splash in June 2024.
But those “right conditions” include making sure it has not rained within 48 hours to ensure healthy water quality. Heavy rains, like the storms Baltimore saw Thursday evening, can create stormwater runoff that washes pollutants into waterways, including the Inner Harbor.
Although Waterfront Partnership staff, advocates, and influencers conducted a successful “test swim” last Friday, the rainfall on Thursday has caused “less than ideal conditions” to hold a swim Saturday morning, prompting the event to be postponed.
In other news, Lindquist and ultra-marathon swimmer Katie Pumphrey will represent Baltimore at the first global Swimmable Cities Summit in Rotterdam from June 22-24.
In 2024, Pumphrey became the first person to swim the 24 miles from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to the Inner Harbor wall, recording a time of 13 hours and 54 minutes.
She embarked on the Bay to Baltimore swim a second time this May, but her voyage was cut short by high winds and unsafe weather conditions that forced her to abort the journey.
