LOCAL 1 STATEMENT ON FAILED DOH LEGIONELLA POLICY
Wednesday, July 22, 2026

With five (5) New Yorkers dead, 82 sick, and eight (8) still hospitalized in the Upper East Side Legionnaires’ disease outbreak, City Hall and the Department of Health (DOH) are still defending a broken, red-tape water safety scheme that ignores the real threat. UA Plumbers Local 1 Business Manager Paul O’Connor issued the following statement:

Five families are grieving today because DOH would rather hide behind paperwork than test the pipes.

DOH is passing the buck by focusing almost exclusively on cooling towers while ignoring full building water systems. Cooling towers are just one branch of a much bigger tree. Legionella breeds in hot water lines, shower heads, faucets, and drinking fountains, anywhere warm water sits and mists.

When Legionella turns up, the answer isn’t to pretend the rest of the building doesn’t exist. The answer is to follow the water. Recent reporting shows nearly 70% of Manhattan’s noncompliant cooling towers had zero testing records on file. DOH’s honor-system self-reporting has failed. We test sprinklers and fire alarms by law, we must treat deadly bacteria with the exact same rigor.

Summer heat, heavy rain, and warm pipes are a breeding ground for death. Routine testing by licensed professionals is cheaper than hospital bills, emergency cleanups, and funerals.

We are demanding a Total Building Water Safety Standard:
* Building-wide Water Plans under ASHRAE 188 standards.
* Routine Legionella testing every 2 to 4 months in high-risk buildings.
* Licensed Master Plumber oversight and ASSE-certified water professionals.
* Independent verification to END DOH’s failed self-reporting system.

No press release from City Hall can replace five lost lives. Stop chasing outbreaks after New Yorkers are already in the morgue. Test the full system. Follow the water. Save lives.