September 2015
Past Issues | Advertise

BOMA/NY Testifies on Cooling Tower Regulation Before City Council Committee

Print this Article | Send to Colleague

In late summer, BOMA/NY Director of Legislative Affairs Daniel Avery testified before the NYC Council Committee on Housing and Buildings on the active approach owners and managers take regarding cooling tower operations, maintenance and treatment to ensure that cooling tower systems are clean, well maintained, and do not pose a hazard from bacteria or other pathogens. He then conveyed BOMA/NY’s concerns regarding  the proposed legislation. 

The bill that ultimately passed--Local Law 77 of 2015--took into consideration some of BOMA/NY's concerns.

The full text of BOMA/NY's testimony on the issue is reprinted here.

"Given the recent outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, we understand the need to ensure that cooling towers are maintained in a way that protects public health. We would hope that practices similar to those [described previously] would be sufficient to meet the requirements of this legislation. With many of the provisions of the bill requiring rulemaking, it is difficult to know if that is the case, and we look forward to working with the city in formulating those rules.

We do have several concerns with aspects of the bill as written, including:

1) The ASHRAE188 standard is new, untested, and unknown to those who typically set up and maintain cooling tower bacteria control operations. This standard has not yet been added to the Code and so has not been properly vetted. If it is to be used, it should be phased in over time to allow for the development of a sufficient number of professionals trained in the process.

2) The registration period for cooling towers should be nine months instead of six weeks.

3) Cleaning and disinfecting after a cooling tower is shut down for three days is unnecessary where there is proper treatment. Three day and longer shutdowns are common at certain times of the year, including for holiday weekends.

4) The law should be limited to direct contact or open cooling towers."

Please make sure to attend BOMA/NY’s Sept. 30 Issue Forum, Legionella and Your Cooling Tower: How to Comply with City & State Laws, to get your questions answered and learn more about achieving compliance. You may register here.