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IAQA GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS UPDATE 9-17-15 FINAL DRAFT

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IAQA Government Affairs Update | October 2015 LEGIONELLA UPDATE: New York City, New York State, and Beyond The Commissioner of The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has ordered all cooling towers in New York City to be evaluated and disinfected before August 27 1 . All records of inspections and disinfection must be kept available to the City upon request. The New York City Council also amended administrative code to require the owners of buildings with cooling towers to register with the City before September 16 and apply for annual certification by November 1, 2016. All cooling towers shall be inspected, tested, cleaned and disinfected in accordance with section 17-194.1 of the administrative code and the rules of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene 2 . New York State also passed an emergency ruling to require all cooling towers to be registered, inspected, certified, and tested for Legionella bacteria before September 16, 2015. Building owners must also submit an acceptable cooling tower operation and maintenance plan to NYSDOH by March 1st, 2016. Owners must test for Legionella bacteria every 90 days and report the results on the NYSDOH information system until such plan is in place. Any cooling tower confirmed to have Legionella bacteria present must be disinfected by a licensed commercial pesticide applicator. An interpretation of Legionella culture results from cooling towers water testing is provided in this ruling. This emergency ruling also requires health care facilities including general hospitals and residential health care facilities to adopt a Legionella sampling plan for its facilities' potable water system and report the results. Necessary responsive actions should be taken if Legionella bacteria is detected 3 . This is an emergency rule with no time permissible for comment, but IAQA Government Affairs Committee expects any rule intended to be permanent will eventually be out for comment. At that time, IAQA and ASHRAE Government Affairs both plan to comment on the desirability of adopting the entire ASHRAE Standard 188 into New York State Administrative Code. IAQA Government Affairs is reaching out to new expert contacts on Legionella within the New York State Department of Health, specifically in the Office for Public Water Supply. Our 1 http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/diseases/legi-comm-order.shtml 2 http://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=2402123&GUID=164871EA-F727-4020-9047- 1E9EDF17BB04&Options=ID%7cText%7c&Search=Legionella 3 https://billtrack50.com/RegulationDetail/680383/1065

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