Federal employees at the Patrick V. McNamara Federal Building in Detroit, were exposed to unhealthy levels of three water contaminants for at least a week before GSA officials took action, an OIG report has found. JEFF KOWALSKY / Getty Images
Federal employees exposed to lead and bacteria in water due to delayed GSA response, IG says
A new report found that water quality at a federal building in Detroit included potentially harmful levels of lead, copper and Legionella bacteria, and the Public Buildings Service did not respond to the threat promptly.
Employees at several federal agencies were exposed to contaminated drinking water at a federal building managed by the General Services Administration, an inspector general’s report found Tuesday.
The OIG said that the Public Buildings Service Great Lakes Region did not respond quickly to complaints of water contamination at the Patrick V. McNamara Federal Building in Detroit, Michigan, exposing federal employees and others to potentially harmful levels of lead, copper and Legionella bacteria as a result.
The report details a hotline complaint the OIG received in December 2023 from a federal employee working at the McNamara Federal Building that alleged GSA officials warned tenants of the contamination a week after the agency had become aware of it.
“As a result, employees were still consuming the water during this delay,” the complaint said. “There is understandably an abundance of concern among employees who may have been or could be exposed to these toxins while continuing to work in the building. Additionally, there are restrooms accessible to the general public that have no signage with warnings; therefore, the general public could be exposed.”
The 27-story building hosts employees from the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, Small Business Administration, Secret Service, Social Security Administration, National Labor Relations Board, the departments of Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development and others.
The OIG found that PBS Region 5 officials became aware of Legionella bacteria in the McNamara building’s cooling towers in August 2023, but did not notify tenants until Nov. 1.
Further testing of the building’s drinking water occurred on Nov. 8 after Legionella bacteria was also found at the nearby Rosa Parks Federal Building. Though the tests came back positive for the bacteria on Nov. 21, PBS Region 5 officials did not take corrective action until Nov. 29.
Ultimately, tests of 121 water fixtures found 27 exceeded Environmental Protection Agency and Centers for Disease Control guidelines, with 20 containing Legionella bacteria, eight containing copper and two containing lead.
As a result of the delays, some tenant agencies took independent action, such as purchasing bottled water, supplying its own test kits and posting its own warning notices and directing questions to the agency and not the PBS.
“The actions taken by GSA’s tenant agencies demonstrate a lack of confidence in GSA’s ability to manage the building and provide a healthy and safe work environment,” the report said. “While the tenants’ actions are understandable, they could have led to conflicting guidance that could cause confusion and undermine GSA’s ability to effectively manage the situation.”
The OIG faulted deficiencies in GSA water quality management policy and building management personnel training for the delayed response, noting that the water quality management policy doesn’t “convey a sense of urgency or clearly define time frames for responding to water contamination in GSA-controlled facilities.”
The report goes on to say that “neither the building manager nor the assistant building manager for the McNamara Federal Building knew how to respond to the test results,” with property managers seeking guidance from the PBS regional office following the Nov. 23 test and not taking any corrective actions like shutting down affected fixtures in the interim.
The OIG called for revised guidance and new training on how to respond to potential water contamination. PBS Commissioner Elliot Doomes “acknowledged that ‘a more timely notification to [McNamara Federal Building] occupants would have been appropriate as [PBS] determined what corrective action was required to reduce risk.’”
Doomes went on to tell the OIG that PBS is undertaking national testing of water quality at federal buildings and would update GSA policies to provide notice of preliminary testing results within one business day and final testing results within three business days.