{"id":376397,"date":"2026-10-18T19:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T19:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/376397\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T19:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T19:52:10","slug":"busted-valve-computer-behind-deadly-nyc-legionnaires-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/376397\/","title":{"rendered":"Busted valve, computer behind deadly NYC Legionnaires\u2019 outbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year\u2019s Legionnaires\u2019 outbreak that killed seven people and sickened 100 others<\/a> has been linked to an unplugged computer and a busted valve, a new $40 million Manhattan lawsuit claims.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The suit \u2014 filed Wednesday by four sickened hardhats against the city and mega-builder Skanska in Manhattan Supreme Court \u2014 claims the computer system responsible for monitoring water quality at the tainted Harlem Public Health Lab water tower was never hooked up to the internet.<\/p>\n

Without a proper internet connection, the automated controller on the cooling tower \u2014 designed to upload water-quality data continuously \u2014 lacked \u201creal time notification\u2026when water quality data indicated potential lack of biocide treatment and poor water quality,\u201d the suit states.<\/p>\n

A tainted water tower at the Harlem Public Health Laboratory led to last year\u2019s deadly Legionnaires\u2019 outbreak, officials have said. Google Maps<\/p>\n

(From left) Plaintiff lawyer Jared Scotto, hardhat Nunzio Quinto, activist Rev. Al Sharpton and attorney Ben Crump attend an announcement of an earlier lawsuit in August 2025. Robert Miller<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that if that machine had been maintained the way it was supposed to, Skanska would have known about the dangerous condition in that cooling tower,\u201d said Jared Scotto, the workers\u2019 lawyer, to The Post.<\/p>\n

But the concrete cause of the breakout at the tower at the then-under-construction municipal site next to Harlem Hospital<\/a> stemmed from a busted valve, which physically prevented the system from flushing out dirty water and replenishing it with clean water, according to court documents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That allowed the deadly bacteria that causes Legionnaires\u2019 Disease to rapidly build up and left the workers \u201cexposed and sickened,\u201d says the suit filed by construction workers Nunzio Quinto, Thomas Dawson, Ahmad Ward and Duane Headley, whose previous cases against the contractor were merged into the new filing.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit concludes that the outbreak at the West 137th Street site was due to \u201cseveral days\u201d in mid July where the chlorine levels were lower than normal \u2014 despite routine treatment \u2014 which may have given the bacteria time to grow.<\/p>\n

The bacteria brewed in the water tower causes the deadly Legionnaires\u2019 disease. freshidea \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

The city Health Department \u2014 in its report about the deadly outbreak this past spring \u2014 also listed a number of other factors that contributed to the bacteria\u2019s growth<\/a> at the water tower, including a \u201ccomplex engineering design\u201d and \u201cimproper startup procedures.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Skanska started using the tower that May without notifying the city and only registered the tower days after the outbreak in late July, the suit says.<\/p>\n

This cooling tower was among the sites linked to the disease outbreak last year. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s report was able to definitely link eight of the Legionnaires\u2019 cases directly to the lab but said it likely contributed to many more.<\/p>\n

The lab site and its tower is next to Harlem Hospital, whose own water system helped fuel the outbreak, too, the city found.<\/p>\n

Scotto, who represents the workers and more than 50 individuals and families of victims who were sickened or died in the debacle, told The Post he appreciated the city\u2019s \u201cdiligent\u201d investigation into the outbreak while also naming the city as a defendant, claiming negligence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people that were responsible for making sure that this dangerous machine was working as it should just weren\u2019t paying attention,\u201d the lawyer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we believe that underpins the indifference to the community. We\u2019re looking forward to getting justice for the individuals and the families that were affected by this.\u201d<\/p>\n

A rep for Skanska told The Post, \u201cWe are aware of the complaint and are reviewing its contents.\u201d<\/p>\n

City officials declined comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last year\u2019s Legionnaires\u2019 outbreak that killed seven people and sickened 100 others has been linked to an unplugged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[469,2850,8467,4327,57,9,24,55,54,56,58],"class_list":["post-376397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-harlem","tag-lawsuits","tag-legionnaires-disease","tag-manhattan-supreme-court","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}