As the federal government turns a Washington County warehouse into an immigration detention center, a new document shows the Department of Homeland Security also considered three sites in the Baltimore region.

A document addressing flood plain issues at the Washington County site revealed three other sites that were considered and rejected for the massive detention center:

• 1940 Reservoir Road in Sparrows Point in eastern Baltimore County
• 8250 Eastern Ave. near the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant in eastern Baltimore County
• 1010 Swan Creek Drive in northeastern Anne Arundel County near Baltimore’s Coast Guard Yard

The Department of Homeland Security posted the document on its website, and it was first reported by Project Salt Box. The document notes the three other sites were considered as part of a requirement to see if “practicable alternatives existed that would meet operational requirements while minimizing environmental and community impacts.”

The agency concluded that the three Baltimore-area sites “presented greater limitations related to site control, security, operational suitability, and potential community impacts.”

“These sites were either constrained by surrounding land uses, located closer to residential neighborhoods, or lacked the infrastructure capacity to support the facility without substantial modifications,” the document says.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Baltimore County officials were not aware the federal government was surveying locations in their jurisdiction, according to spokesperson Dakarai Turner. Anne Arundel County officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Sparrows Point warehouse is leased to a company called LifeScience Logistics, according to Tradepoint Atlantic, which was unaware of any Department of Homeland Security interest in the site.

LifeScience Logistics could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.

A property company linked to the Eastern Avenue warehouse declined to comment. The Delaware-based real estate company that owns the Swan Creek Drive property could not be reached for comment.

The DHS instead bought an 825,000-square-foot facility and its 53.5-acre Williamsport property for $102.4 million from a private entity last month.

Federal documents say the purpose of the facility is to “provide short‑term housing for individuals in immigration custody awaiting immigration processing and related administrative procedures.”

While the Washington County Board of County Commissioners voted to support the project, Maryland is suing to block the facility, saying the feds skipped a required environmental impact study.

Maryland state lawmakers are also advancing bills that would set standards for detention facilities and clarify that local zoning needs to be in place for such facilities.

The federal government has been holding people arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a Baltimore field office in overcrowded and substandard conditions, according to immigration attorneys whose clients have been detained there and members of Maryland’s federal delegation who have conducted federal oversight visits.