Maryland lawmakers demand answers after Legionella found at Fallon federal building

Maryland’s congressional delegation pressed federal officials to produce test results and begin “immediate remediation” after lawmakers said a November 2025 baseline test confirmed the presence of Legionella bacteria in the George H. Fallon Federal Building at 31 Hopkins Plaza in Baltimore. The building houses multiple federal agencies, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s regional office and holding rooms, and a child care facility, raising acute concerns about vulnerable populations inside the building.

The demand came in a letter signed by Senators Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks and Representatives Kweisi Mfume, Steny Hoyer, Jamie Raskin, Glenn Ivey, Sarah Elfreth, April McLain Delaney, and Johnny Olszewski. The letter warned: “The presence of these bacteria, and the lack of clear direction from GSA, poses a serious health and safety threat for all users of the Fallon building.” It also stated in part, “We write with concern regarding recent reports of a Legionella bacteria outbreak at the George H. Fallon Federal Building ... We are particularly concerned by this development in light of reports of overcrowding at the Baltimore Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Office’s holding rooms, as well as the presence of a child care facility, in the building.”

The General Services Administration says it treated the building with hyperchlorination after the November test and is “actively monitoring and treating the water system using a drinking water management plan, which includes flushing, temperature and disinfectant checks, and periodic retesting for Legionella.” A GSA spokesperson added, “GSA is committed to ensuring the safety of federal employees, contractors, and visitors in our federal buildings.”

Lawmakers say the bacteria “remains in the water system” despite those steps and that some tenants may be unaware of ongoing risk. They have asked GSA to provide all testing data, treatment schedules and documentation of notices sent to building occupants, and to explain what actions have been taken to mitigate exposure to detainees, employees and visitors.

The letter linked the water findings to longstanding complaints about detention conditions at the ICE field office. Representative Jamie Raskin, who visited the site last month, described a holding room where what he estimated were 55 people were confined in space designed for roughly 15, saying, “People were just shoulder to shoulder; they sleep there on the ground.” Lawmakers argued overcrowding increases vulnerability to any environmental hazard inside temporary holding rooms.

An ICE spokesperson defended the agency’s intentions to relocate detainees, saying the agency “would like to move detainees out of the field office” but alleging local opposition to transfer them to a proposed facility in Elkridge, Maryland, calling it “such a hypocrisy.” The claim about relocation plans and local barriers has not been supplemented with public documents in the letter.

Public health experts caution that Legionella bacteria can be commonly present in water systems at low levels but can cause Legionnaires’ disease if it reaches elevated concentrations; that disease can be severe, with a fatality rate around 10 percent. Federal oversight has flagged this as a recurring problem: the GSA inspector general in 2023 found Legionella in water sources at approximately half a dozen federal buildings, and Baltimore city agencies detected and remediated Legionella in several municipal buildings in 2025 through flushing and chlorination followed by retesting.

The lawmakers’ letter frames the Fallon Building detection as part of a pattern and presses for transparency about both environmental sampling and any human-health impacts. It remains unclear from public records whether any Legionnaires’ disease cases have been epidemiologically linked to the Fallon site; the delegation’s immediate ask is for GSA to produce the test results and remediation schedules so tenants, detainees and parents can know whether they have been exposed and what protections are in place.