Key Takeaways:

• While closing the public health investigation of the recent Legionnaires’ disease community cluster, the City of New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOH) also announced a list of potential resource and policy changes

• Proposed changes include shifting the testing requirement to at least every 30 days rather than the current 90-day requirement

• Fines due to violation of inspection laws may also be increased

This is part two of our recent series monitoring the Legionnaires’ disease developments in New York, particularly pertaining to the public health investigation concerning the recent community cluster in Manhattan.

On August 29, the City of New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOH) announced that it was closing its public health investigation. In the announcement, New York City Mayor Adams stated that it had been “three weeks since someone with symptoms was identified.” That passage of time, coupled with other factors stemming from the DOH investigation, reportedly led the DOH to determine that it was able to close its investigation.

As we predicted earlier, a series of lawsuits on behalf of over a dozen plaintiffs were quickly filed in New York County Supreme Court. Additional lawsuits are very likely to be filed.

Meanwhile, as part of the recent announcement closing the public health investigation “the Adams administration is proposing a package of resources and policy changes to further reduce the risk of future clusters.” Among these potential changes and resources, the announcement includes the following:

• Expanding the Health Department’s capacity to inspect the city’s cooling towers, including hiring additional water ecologists to conduct inspections and building system engineers to assess building mechanical systems and plumbing.
• Requiring building owners to test for Legionella at least every 30 days during the cooling tower operating period instead of the current 90-day requirement.
• Expanding the Health Department’s sampling capacity to conduct proactive sampling of building cooling tower systems and maintain contracts to surge capacity when faced with novel issues during future clusters.
• Increasing fines for violations for failure to comply with cooling tower local laws and regulations.
• Requiring the Health Department and other involved city agencies to conduct a full review of the city’s cooling tower rules to further strengthen oversight.
• Establishing a community engagement team staffed by community health workers based in the Health Department’s neighborhood health action centers to be rapidly deployed to provide information and education to neighborhood residents during an emergency and focus on improving the health of New Yorkers year-round.

Furthermore, the DOH is conducting a “full review of the city’s cooling tower rules to further strengthen city regulations.”

Goldberg Segalla previously outlined the City of New York’s expanded cooling tower inspection reporting requirements as of 2019. A summary can be found here. The DOH website provides further information regarding the City’s cooling tower regulations, including registration and annual certification.

It is also noteworthy that, in early August, the City of New York included items in the FY 2026 Regulatory Agenda pertaining to legionella testing, “Chapter 8: Reporting of Legionella tests and laboratory analytical requirements.” A copy can be found here. As the agenda outlines, the proposal would “provide penalties for failure to comply with reporting inspections that include test sampling for Legionella, add a laboratory certification requirement for Legionella samples, and clarify timing requirements in certain provisions of Chapter 8.”

The August 29 DOH announcement strongly suggests significant increases in enforcement of cooling tower regulations going forward, and, potential enactment of greatly expanded cooling tower regulations, likely in 2026.

For non-proactive building owners and operators, the consequences of missed or failed inspections of cooling towers can be severe. As just one example, even if legionella is not detected during an inspection, a violation of the current inspection laws can result in significant fines totaling thousands of dollars. Those fines are typically resolved at a hearing before the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings.

The number of cases of Legionnaires disease reported to CDC has been on the rise since 2000.

For additional information, please contact:

• Andrew J. Scholz
• Karen Cullinane
• Michael D. Shalhoub