Cooling towers on New York City buildings must be registered by September 17, 2015.
Following the recent outbreak of Legionnaires' disease, both New York City and New York State have passed separate laws regarding the registration, testing, and disinfecting of cooling towers. Under the New York City law, building owners have 30 days to register their cooling towers. Existing cooling towers must be registered by September 17, 2015 at the NYC Cooling Tower Registration Portal.
The legislation also requires building owners to conduct regular inspections of cooling towers and to provide annual certification that their towers have been inspected, tested, cleaned and disinfected. In addition, the legislation requires building owners to carry out a maintenance plan. Owners who don't comply with the law could face legal sanctions, including fines of up to $25,000.
New York State passed similar statewide regulations requiring building owners to register, test and inspect all cooling towers and disinfect them when necessary. New York City buildings with cooling towers must comply with the separate requirements in both laws.
Due to the differences among individual cooling towers and their varying conditions, the legislation calls for an "environmental consultant with demonstrated experience" to evaluate a tower, and regardless of the result of the evaluation, to disinfect it according to the accepted standards.
The scope involved with disinfecting a tower can range from adding chemical additives at a cost of less than $1,000, to undertaking an extensive cleaning that can cost $1,500 to $30,000 or more, depending on the size of the tower. An extensive cleaning typically requires taking the tower "offline" (out of service) to drain and scrub it.
The NYC Department of Health has provided a FAQ sheet: Guidance for Building Owners: Cooling Towers and Health Commissioner Order.
Please contact RAND at 212-675-8844 or info@nullrandpc.com for more information.
Norbert Gorgowicz is a Project Engineer on RAND’s Mechanical Engineering Team.
