Union: Baltimore County Police Buildings' Drinking Water Unsafe

Baltimore County Police officers stationed in older buildings are concerned about the safety of their drinking water after testing found unsafe amounts of lead in the water in one building. Now, their union says, they’re being ignored.

“An employer’s job is to provide a safe working environment,” said Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 4 President David Rose. “They can’t even provide clean water.”

Rose said over the past month, officers have raised issues with the union over water at three buildings: the North Point Government Center in Dundalk, as well as the department’s precincts in Essex and Cockeysville. While testing has been, and is still being, conducted at North Point, a former junior high school, the FOP president said the precincts haven’t been addressed.

At all three locations, several officers bring drinking water from home or rely on donations for their shifts, Rose said, and their attempts to have the department supply bottled water have failed.

The most immediate concerns seem to surround the Dundalk government building, where Rose said the police’s K-9 and SWAT units are stationed — 51 officers in total.

According to an April 23 water analysis report reviewed by The Baltimore Sun, testing found lead in two areas of the building: the “Men’s Locker Room” and the “Women’s Restroom Right Sink.”

The analysis, conducted by KCI Technologies and Home Land Labs, showed three testing locations within the North Point building. The last of them, a water fountain on the second floor, detected no lead.

While the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agree there is no safe level of lead in drinking water, the amount of metal in the women’s sink was faint enough to pass its April 22 test. But samples taken the same day from the men’s locker room failed with lead units nearly 10 times the limit.

According to the analysis paperwork The Sun reviewed, using the EPA 200.8 method, which uses plasma and mass spectrometry to analyze trace elements present in water, the company allows a reading of .0005 milligrams per liter of lead in water. The amount of lead in the men’s locker room failed with .148 milligrams per liter, the test shows, while the women’s sink passed with .0027 milligrams per liter.

Police department spokesperson Joy Stewart said several water sources were tested last month at the North Point Government Center, and a sink in the men’s locker room was the only one that failed. Additionally, the county only allows the second floor of the building to be used, she said, and the problem sink is located on the first floor.

“Upon learning of employee concern, the department acted immediately and contacted property management to initiate testing at the North Point Government Center,” Stewart wrote in a statement Monday to The Sun. “Tests were conducted at multiple locations. Two of the locations tested, including a drinking fountain, passed EPA potable water standards. One recently replaced sink faucet, in the unoccupied first floor, showed lead levels above EPA standards.

“To prevent the consumption of non-potable water, a sign was placed at the sink to ensure that water from the faucet is not unintentionally consumed,” Stewart wrote. “Results of the initial tests were provided to the [ Fraternal Order of Police].”

Stewart said the county also procured a water consultant to perform additional testing at 14 locations within the North Point Government Center, including testing the main line. The latest testing results are expected within two weeks.

Neither Home Land Labs nor KCI Technologies responded to questions or requests for comments.

According to the EPA, lead can enter drinking water when pipes made from it begin to corrode. Though Congress began requiring “lead free” plumbing materials in 1986 for public water systems, homes and facilities built before then are more likely to have lead piping, the federal agency states.

Rose said while the water failure at North Point, which closed as a school in 1981 before becoming a public park, may be isolated on paper, officers are concerned about its cleanliness throughout the building.

“These guys don’t even know if it’s safe to shower,” he said.

According to the EPA, lead from shower water cannot penetrate skin.

Both the police union and department said further testing on North Point’s main water line is underway and that the county’s Property Management Division is awaiting the results.

Meanwhile, according to Rose, officers at the Cockeysville and Essex precincts — which opened in 1969 and 1973, respectively — are left largely without options. A water machine in Essex doesn’t work, he said, while a request for bottled water at Cockeysville was denied.

The water concerns at Essex run in concert with spacing problems, as well, as somewhere between 20 and 30 staff members have to work offsite because there isn’t enough room in the main precinct building.

The county government is planning a mammoth expansion and renovation project at the precinct, one that will add more than three-times as much square footage to the 52-year-old building.

Before then, however, Rose said while it is the government’s responsibility to test the water at the Essex station and other facilities, the union is prepared to pay for its own testing if need be.

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