Testing failure prompts water shut-off at Dundalk police facility

Luke Parker

The Baltimore Sun

June 5, 2025

New areas on the first floor have been pinpointed in contamination tests, police say

Baltimore County officials turned off the water on the first floor of a Dundalk police facility after it failed a new round of contamination testing, the officers’ union said.

More samples were taken from the North Point Government Center last month after lead levels in a first-floor sink exceeded national safety standards; two other sites tested at the time passed. Police said the first level is only “used for limited purposes.”

While all but one of the samples contained lead, the report shows that six of the water sources failed with levels above federal standards. All of them were on the first floor.

According to department spokesperson Joy Stewart, the first floor at North Point is “used for limited purposes,” while the second is where K-9 and SWAT units are stationed.

The sample with the least amount of lead, according to the report, was a water fountain on the second floor.

Meanwhile, police said the approximately 50 SWAT and K-9 unit officers stationed at North Point will be restricted from the first floor “until further mitigation is conducted.”

According to the EPA, drinking water can be contaminated by corroding lead pipes, which are more common in facilities built before 1986 — when Congress banned lead materials from future potable water systems.

The county officers’ union was alerted to water quality concerns sometime in April, according to Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 4 President David Rose. The worries, he said, came from personnel in some of the department’s older buildings, including its precincts in Wilkens, Cockeysville and Essex.

Last month, after The Baltimore Sun reported on those concerns, the county’s Property Management division began supplying the officers and K-9s at North Point with bottled water. Stewart said it will continue to do so, adding that the water sources on the first floor have been “rendered inaccessible.”

Stewart told The Sun that Property Management is responsible for maintenance throughout the building.

Additionally, the county has started addressing the other facilities, Rose said, ordering new water dispensers and testing at Wilkens, Cockeysville and Essex.

“I’m glad they are doing additional testing in precincts 1, 11 and 7 and they are finally addressing the [officers’] concerns by providing safe bottled water,” the union president said Wednesday. “What still needs to be addressed is new updated facilities.”

A junior high school until 1981, the North Point Government Center is used by the Baltimore County Department of Recreation and Parks and Police Department. County spokesperson Erica Palmisano said last month that staff and participants who use it for sports or theater cannot access the police part of the facility.

Palmisano acknowledged emailed questions Wednesday but was not immediately able to comment.

In January, a report from the Maryland Department of the Environment showed lead contamination was a chronic issue in schools across the state, with more than 80% of approximately 1,068 campuses having at least one problematic water source.

According to the report, Baltimore County Public Schools had the highest number of failed samples in the state.

Of the 3,113 failed samples from Baltimore County’s schools, approximately 76% came from a “drinking outlet,” the report states.

Charles Herndon, a Baltimore County Schools spokesperson, declined to comment on the cause behind the lead levels Wednesday, but said that the school system has the third-oldest set of buildings in the state