NYC Adopts ASHRAE Legionella Standard After 12 Die

With 12 confirmed dead and more than 120 cases of infection due to legionellosis, New York City Council late last week adopted legislation that requires adherence to part of ASHRAE’s newly published legionella standard.

The legislation addresses registration and inspection of cooling towers. It requires owners to create and file a plan to maintain equipment to comply with Section 7.2 of ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 188-2015, Legionellosis: Risk Management for Building Water Systems.

The standard provides minimum legionellosis risk management requirements for the design, construction, commissioning, operation, maintenance, repair, replacement and expansion of new and existing buildings and their associated water systems and components. ASHRAE published it two months ago.

Specific requirements in the standard include:

• Minimum legionellosis risk management requirements for buildings and their associated potable and non-potable water systems.
• Establishment by building owners of a program eam and (in turn) a water management program for which they are responsible in order to comply with the standard.
• Provision of specific and detailed requirements for what legionellosis control strategies must accomplish and how they are to be documented — but, does not provide (or place restrictions on) what specific strategies are to be used or applied.