Tighter Monitoring of Cooling Towers Will Follow Disease Outbreak

Mayor Bill de Blasio said his administration will introduce legislation regulating cooling towers, following what officials described as the largest outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in New York City's history.

So far, the disease has sickened 86 people and claimed seven lives in the South Bronx.

"We'll set new inspection standards for buildings with cooling and condensing units," said de Blasio Tuesday. "If legionella is detected at any of these units, immediate action will be required by the building ownership and there will be clear penalties for failure to comply."

Five cooling towers in the South Bronx were found to be contaminated with the bacteria. All have since been cleaned, city health officials said.

New regulations will include creating a registry of cooling towers, so that the city knows where they are, de Blasio said. There are currently no laws requiring building owners to report these structures to the city.

At a town hall meeting Monday night, Bronx residents questioned why the city had not done more, and sooner, to regulate cooling towers, especially in light of a smaller outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in January. A contaminated cooling tower was the source of that outbreak as well, city health officials said.