The city Health Department is investigating a report that Legionella bacteria — the root cause of Legionnaires’ Disease, which has already killed seven New Yorkers this year — has been found at the upscale High Line Hotel in Chelsea, officials said.
City officials confirmed that the Health Department is investigating complaints raised by the New York Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, a union representing city hotel workers.
Routine testing of the cooling tower attached to the 10th Ave. hotel, where rooms can range as high as $400 a night, conducted in July “detected high levels of Legionella bacteria,” City Councilman Carl Wilson said on X. “In response, the hotel carried out the required corrective actions, including multiple rounds of disinfection and a full remediation of the cooling tower system and the hotel is currently safe for guests and employees.”
“The Department of Health says that it has reviewed the hotel’s testing results and remediation efforts and does not recommend any additional actions at this time while confirmatory testing is pending,” the councilman said.
The city Health Department will once again collect samples at the hotel’s cooling tower on Tuesday, Wilson said.
Reports of Legionella bacteria being found in a city hotel left Council Speaker Julie Menin “very concerned.”
“New Yorkers deserve confidence that potential Legionella risks are identified and addressed before they become outbreaks,” Menin said on X.
The High Line Hotel in Chelsea, Manhattan. (Shutterstock)
A spokeswoman from the city Health Department said they received a complaint about the hotel’s cooling tower on Thursday and “acted immediately to ensure local laws and regulations are being followed.”
“We’ve made contact with both hotel management and the union representing workers and all parties are cooperating to ensure the proper steps are being followed to prevent bacteria growth and protect public health,” the spokeswoman said. “All New Yorkers and hotel guests can continue to use the building systems without interruption.”
When the cooling tower was inspected on July 1, Legionella bacteria was not detected, but “subsequent testing by the building showed elevated levels of bacteria and the owner completed the necessary steps to remediate after each test,” Health officials said.
No one from the hotel has reported becoming sick. An email to MCR Hotels, a hospitality company that owns the High Line Hotel, for comment was not immediately returned.
The bacteria’s discovery in Chelsea comes as city Health officials said that the Legionnaires’ Disease outbreak that hit the Upper East Side and has killed seven people was under control with no additional victims. There had been no new cases in three weeks, city officials said.
Meanwhile, civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump filed a lawsuit against the city and contractors responsible for maintaining the cooling towers linked to last year’s outbreak that also killed seven people and sickened nearly 120.