Baltimore officials are investigating what caused a sewer overflow in Remington that dumped 1.3 million gallons of raw sewage into the Jones Falls.

While the city’s Department of Public Works assesses the matter, officials warn sewage overflow could cause discolored stream water and an unpleasant smell in the area.

The sanitary sewage overflow began around noon on Wednesday near 2200 Huntingdon Ave. in Remington, DPW spokesperson Jennifer Combs said in an email. Workers remedied the overflow by 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Combs said.

Officials said 1,381,000 gallons of raw sewage seeped through a sewer manhole into a nearby storm drain that leads to the Jones Falls. The Jones Falls runs upstream of Penn Station to north of East Lombard Street and flows into Baltimore’s harbor.

The Maryland Department of the Environment is aware of the overflow and visited the site of its initiation Thursday, spokesperson Jay Apperson said. Combs said DPW is working with MDE on the environmental assessment.

Barbara Johnson, the senior manager of water protection and community advocacy at the environmental nonprofit Blue Water Baltimore, is concerned about pharmaceuticals, pesticides, microplastics, viruses and parasites contaminating the stream. She recognizes, though, that this is a result of living in Baltimore and hopes for more awareness about sanitary sewage overflow.

“This is a product of living in an urban ecosystem that has aging infrastructure,” she said. “These types of sewage overflows can happen rain or shine.”

Combs said there’ll be signs near the Jones Falls notifying people of the overflow, warning against contact with the water and suggesting possible water discoloration and odor in the surrounding areas.

Those along the Jones Falls Trail, a 10-mile hiking and biking track that runs mostly concurrent with its namesake, may get a whiff of the sewage.

More than two decades after Baltimore came under federal and state oversight to end sewage overflows, public works officials say resolving the problem could take another 20 years and hundreds of millions more in taxpayer dollars.