The city Department of Health 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.
A Health Department spokeswoman 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.
The New York Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, after learning that Legionella bacteria levels had spiked at the hotel’s cooling tower last month, asked hotel management to let its members leave for health and safety reasons, but the request was denied. The union also asked the hotel to alert its guests, but that, too, was denied, the union said.
“No one should have to choose between keeping their job and staying healthy,” union president Richard Maroko said. “Given the severity of the public health crisis facing the city, our union proactively surveyed the entire unionized hotel industry, and while the vast majority have been cooperative and acted in the best safety interests of workers and guests, this hotel has unfortunately been a glaring and disturbing exception.”
“Now that this latest incident has been made public, we hope they will take any and all steps necessary to ensure worker and public safety is met,” Maroko said.
No one from the hotel has reported becoming sick. An email requesting comment from MCR Hotels, a hospitality company that owns the High Line Hotel, was not immediately returned.
The bacteria’s discovery in Chelsea comes as city Health officials said 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 Legionnaires’ outbreak that also killed seven people and sickened nearly 120.
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CORRECTION: An earlier online version of this story used an incorrect photo of a different and unrelated hotel.