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
