Free Advice From A Certified Water Technologist

The Legionella bacteria has recently claimed many lives in the NY
Metropolitan area and many other places in the United States (i.e., California, Illinois). As a certified water technologist (certification through the Association of Water Technologies), I implore you to become very serious about safeguarding your building (s) from this deadly bacteria. One of the best ways to protect your tenants, staff, and faculty is by hiring an unbiased outside third party consultant to oversee your current water treatment company.

As you may already be aware, NYC and NY State is requiring (by law) that all building owners with a cooling tower to evaluate/inspect their current chemical water treatment program and cooling tower. With regards to cooling tower inspections, the following is required by law:

For cooling towers that operate on a seasonal basis, 3 inspections are required. (PLEASE NOTE: 3 inspections are necessary if the system runs for 180 days. More specifically, 1 inspection is required before start up and 2 other inspections are required within the time frame of 180 days).
For cooling towers that operate on an annual basis, 4 inspections required.

IMPORTANT: These cooling tower inspections are similar to report cards for your current water treatment vendor, and, as a direct result, it will prove less of a liability to have an outside third party/vendor/certified water technologist (i.e., EMPIRE COOLING TO WER INSPECTIONS & SERVICES) to inspect your buildings’ current water treatment program and cooling tower.

The following analogies should help explain why a building owner/property manager/hotel manager would benefit from investing in a consulting firm/ consultant rather than allowing their current water treatment vendor to conduct the required cooling tower inspections:

Would you allow your employees to conduct their OWN job performance evaluations? I would hope not. All of your employees would get close to perfect job performance evaluations.

Would you allow your building’s elevator (maintenance) service company to inspect their OWN work/service repairs? LEGALLY, this act is no longer allowed and more importantly, this is a conflict of interest.

IMPORTANT: The act of having your current, cooling tower – water treatment vendor conduct their OWN cooling tower inspections for the NY State is very similar to the above noted scenarios.

In the past few years, I have trained hundreds of water treatment service technicians and water treatment account executive/managers. And, it was always concerning to see that the majority of new employees in water treatment companies had no prior experience or knowledge of water treatment and, even worse, companies had no desire to hire professional water treaters. To prove this, call your water treatment vendor’s account manager and ask him/her where they worked last year or the year before that. They will probably say something like Kohls, Verizon, or even inform you that they were driving a delivery truck. Can someone please explain to me how working for any of the above noted businesses qualifies a person to assist people with Legionella issues? I know……I know…it does not.

After years of working for multi-million dollar water treatment companies, I understand now that neither geography nor size dictates excellence in the water treatment field. Only the human mind, passion, dedication, and hands-on experience do. This statement speaks volumes when choosing your vendor to protect your building´s tenants from contracting Legionella.

According to the NY State DOHMH, only a “QUALIFIED PERSON” may inspect your cooling tower. The NY State defines a qualified person as a certified water technologist with training and experience developing management plans and performing inspections in accordance with current standard industry protocols including, but not limited to ANSI/ASHRAE 188-2015; a New York State licensed and registered professional engineer; a certified industrial hygienist; or an environmental consultant who has at least two (2) years of operational experience in water management planning and operation.

IMPORTANT: The majority of water treatment technicians do not meet these requirements. Ask your water treatment vendor ‘ s representative if they meet these requirements and request for proof (documentation).

PLEASE NOTE: Unfortunately, these cooling tower inspections are hindrances to water treatment companies, because these companies are already swamped with all of their clients and associated problems. In many regards, they struggle to take care and support their clients. Even worse, some water treatment companies have a tendency to only provide the bare minimum and, at times, their clients do not get serviced for 2 to 3 months. As a direct consequence, water treatment companies lose many accounts (cancellation of services). However, by the time that they lose an account, another company signs up with them; this is what we call in the water treatment world…..A WASH.

Some NY water treatment companies are simply too large for themselves and the people who are overseeing the whole operation typically have minimal or, in some cases, no formal training in water treatment. Sadly, it is all about being a quantity driven company rather than being what they claim…..a quality driven water treatment company .

On a good note, there are a few independent NYC/NJ water treatment consulting firms (i.e., EMPIRE COOLING TOWER INSPECTIONS AND SERVICES) that can truly help safeguard your tenants from contracting Legionella. These are the experts ….these are the certified water technologists of the world….these are the people in water treatment consulting/ cooling tower inspections firms. The difference in expertise between a certified water technologist and your regular water treatment technician who gets minimum wage is tremendous. More specifically, water treatment technicians struggle with programming water treatment controllers. When technicians need to adjust (increase) the biocide dosage, this in turn means that the technician will need to reprogram the water treatment controller or increase the settings on the chemical metering pump. Unfortunately, once the settings on the pumps are at their maximum, the controller needs to be adjusted, and this is exactly when problems occur.

In a nutshell, be safe and choose wisely who will inspect your cooling tower and overall WT program. In essence, the only way to avoid unnecessary fines from the NY DOHMH is to hire a water treatment expert.

Here are some questions you should ask during this screening process:

1. Is your cooling tower inspector qualified to inspect a cooling tower (demand proof/documentation).

2. Does your cooling tower inspector understand the intricacies within a NY State Cooling Tower Inspection?

3. Does your cooling tower inspector know how to maneuver through the programming of the water treatment controller?

4. Does your cooling tower inspector know how to actuate chemical metering pumps and different types of water treatment devices via the water treatment controller?

5. Does your cooling tower inspector understand a cooling tower’s critical risk points and how to troubleshoot problems once they see them. Are they making the appropriate recommendations?

Err on the side of caution and hire a professional to inspect your cooling tower.

—Certified water technologists have all been certified through the

Association of Water Technologies–.