A Big Office Blunder: Bacteria Found In EPA Buildings

Legionella Detected At Federal Offices, Plus A Massive PFAS Spill in Maine

In the restroom at the Cannon House Office Building, the oldest congressional office building, in 2016

It’s September which means it’s back to school and back to work. Oh wait, before you head back to the office make sure the water is safe to drink!

Routine testing revealed that the very contaminants the EPA is tasked with protecting people from have been discovered in their employees’ drinking water.

First in Chicago. Drinking water samples tested positive for Legionella bacteria along with lead and copper at EPA offices at the Ralph H. Metcalfe Federal Building prompting the union representing EPA employees based there to file a formal complaint.

“If we can't address it in our own building, then how can we have the credibility to address it on behalf of the people in the region?” Loreen Targos, executive vice president of AFGE 704, the union that represents about 1,000 federal EPA workers, and a scientist with the EPA, told CBS News.

Reminds me of the time I visited the U.S. Congress in 2016 and their water was shut down due to unsafe lead levels. In that case, staffers who worked at the Cannon House Office Building may have been exposed to lead-contaminated water for as long as nine months. Wild, right?

But maybe not when you know that Legionella outbreaks are on the rise. This type of bacteria is found naturally in freshwater like lakes and streams, but it has become more widespread in man-made water systems like faucets, drinking fountains, and plumbing systems.

In 2016, about 5,000 Americans were diagnosed with a severe (and sometimes fatal) form of pneumonia, called Legionnaire’s disease, which people contract from breathing small droplets of water contaminated with the bacteria. By 2018, reported cases of Legionnaires’ disease jumped to more than 9,000 and health departments continue to report cases close to that each year. Though some experts believe the disease gets underreported because it can be difficult to diagnose or distinguish from other lung infections.

Legionella infections are most common in the summer and early fall month, when building are using more air conditioning which access cooling towers. People 50 and older are more susceptible to getting sick from Legionella, which are microscopic in size. Most people who get sick don’t know where it came from.

The bacteria tend to flourish when temperatures rise, water is stagnant, or chemical disinfectants are insufficient. Building shut-downs or even when less people work in an office (decreased capacity) can leave warm water stagnant in pipes, which is a perfect environment for Legionella to multiply. Corroding pipes can also cause the bacteria to thrive.

But there’s more to this story…

The U.S. General Services Administration, which supports the function of federal agencies and provides office space, has been conducting baseline water testing in many federal buildings this year to identify and address potential issues.

Last week, federal officials closed three water fountains, one pantry sink, and two expansion tanks at a federal building in Washington D.C. after water sources tested positive for Legionella, according to an email obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News. The building complex houses many EPA employees.

In July, Legionella was detected in the water fixtures of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Social Security Administration facilities in Baltimore County.

Plus, a sink in an EPA laboratory in Houston tested positive for Legionella bacteria, prompting a separate email to employees in June warning them not to use the sink.

Now imagine if there was a federal agency tasked with this same kind of baseline testing for offices, schools, healthcare facilities, etc. Oh wait, isn’t that what the EPA is supposed to do?

A 2019 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering. and Medicine, a 13-member committee warned that current laws, including the Safe Drinking Water Act, fail to protect the public from the spread of Legionella. The EPA regulates Legionella in public water systems under the Surface Water Treatment Rule (SWTR), which is tied to the SDWA.

But the authors of the report said the bacteria is managed in water systems “on an ad hoc basis.” Only a handful of federal, state, and local regulations require certain buildings to have water management plans that include monitoring for and treatment of Legionella, and no federal law targets Legionella contamination of water supplies and building water systems.

The committee recommended some easy fixes including requiring a minimum disinfectant level throughout public water systems, developing clinical tools to capture more cases of Legionnaires’ disease, and working to address the longer periods of time that water sits idle.

Certainly, these findings shed light on the bigger issue and that federal standards and testing need to be implemented to help ensure public safety. The more we test for chemicals and bacteria, the more we find it.

Testing is the first step, but we also need follow-up and federal regulatory agencies have the funding and staff to make it happen.

Meanwhile in Maine…

Speaking of oops, this one was pretty big. In fact, Brunswick, Maine, residents are still seeking answers after a spill of toxic firefighting foam containing PFAS at the former Brunswick Naval Airbase site last week.

The spill released a staggering 1,450 gallons of AFFF concentrate mixed with approximately 50,000 gallons of water into the environment.

It’s the largest accidental spill of aqueous film-forming foam, or AFFF, in the state’s history, and the sixth-largest in the U.S. in the past 30 years.

A faulty fire suppression system led to the flood of chemicals. The system was manually deactivated after the foam was released in Hangar 4 from four wall-mounted cannons.

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection, or DEP, is supervising the cleanup, but so far only 6,000 gallons of the foam mixture have been collected.

The level of risk to the community depends on how much foam seeps onto properties. The most urgent issue, especially for people using private wells, is the potential for contamination of drinking water.

The public drinking water supply to Brunswick Landing comes from the Brunswick- Topsham Water District (BTWD) and has been confirmed safe to drink.

Ironically, the PFAS-containing foam was slated for collection by the Navy this October. Even with the spill and the cleanup now underway, the site stores additional tanks of AFFF. 

Emily Baisden who lives nearby says the spill didn’t surprise her, given that the federal government had previously deemed the area a Superfund hazardous cleanup site.

“We know there’s a lot of toxic chemicals, and we know there’s the potential for that happening,” she told Maine Public Radio. There’s a lot of those bunkers in areas that still contain that stuff. Be nice for that to get cleaned up and taken care of so it doesn’t happen again.”

For more than 50 years, the DOD required the use of AFFF, which led to contamination at more than 600 military sites across 50 states.

The incident is yet another stark reminder of the DOD’s slow pace of addressing its stockpile of AFFF.  Without swift action, the threat of harm from accidents like the Maine spill will linger.

These foams, used for decades by the military, fire training centers, and airports, have exposed firefighters to toxic chemicals and polluted the water supply of service members, their families, and surrounding communities. Safer alternatives to PFAS-based foams are available.

In July, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a transportation spending bill that sets aside $70 million to help airports switch to PFAS-free firefighting foams. The money fully covers the first year of a five-year, $350 million grant program for the foam transition created in May in the FAA reauthorization law.

AFFF is one of the most significant sources of water contamination from toxic PFAS, known to cause a number of health harms, including cancer, reproductive harm, immune system damage and other serious problems.

Despite knowing PFAS can build up in the blood and pose severe health risks, manufacturers hid the truth for decades and fought to keep these foams on the market.

The Maine CDC recommends the public avoid contact with foam they may encounter in waterways on the former Brunswick Naval Air Station. Maine CDC also advises the public not to take fish from any waters located on the former Brunswick Naval Air Station (including Picnic Pond, Merriconeag Stream, and Mere Brook east of the runway) while officials evaluate the potential impact to the watershed.

Lab results will be made accessible on the DEP website at  https://www.maine.gov/dep/projects/bnas/index.html as soon as they become available.

Residents who want to sample their own private drinking water wells can follow water sampling guidance from DEP.

The DOD needs to pick up the pace and get AFFF out of these current and former bases so it doesn’t pose a threat to nearby communities. A July 2024 Government Accountability Office report identifies some of the challenges, so far.

Some weeks, there are no words for the corruption and chaos that continue to plague this country. So we leave you with a song…

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Questions or comments? You know the drill. Sound off in the comments below!