For residents of an East Village affordable housing complex called Haven Plaza, this summer has been a trial of patience after potentially deadly Legionella bacteria was discovered in their buildings’ water system.
Since mid-May they have been forgoing showers on the advice of city officials and have waited in vain for the building management to sanitize the system so they can return to normal life.
Meanwhile, they look north and see the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene taking what they view as a far more aggressive approach in confronting a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease set amid residential buildings across the Upper East Side. On Thursday afternoon, Health Commissioner Alister Martin announced a seventh death in that outbreak.
“The community has been at risk for two months and counting,” Dana Cruz, the tenant organization president at Haven Plaza, told The City Reporter. “The Department of Health has been coordinating with management to make sure the landlord is not inconvenienced, allowing over four weeks just to devise a remediation plan. There’s no sense of urgency to actually resolve this problem.”
On the Upper East Side earlier this month, the department immediately ordered building owners where tests revealed the presence of Legionella to drain, disinfect and refill their cooling towers. Owners responded in days, and last week the department declared victory, believing that the bacteria, which causes Legionnaires’ disease, had been eradicated.
Action has been far slower in the East Village.
Martin first ordered Wavecrest Management, the firm that manages Haven Plaza for the owner, Catholic Homes, to “evaluate and remediate” the water system after two residents had contracted Legionnaire’s disease there within the prior 11 months. That directive came on May 11th.
But remediation of the 371-unit complex’s water system didn’t begin until Tuesday, two and a half months after the commissioner’s order. And as of this week, a completion date hasn’t been provided to Haven Plaza tenants.
Cruz said the health department’s approach to the Upper East Side cluster “is dramatically different” from its response to Haven Plaza.
“Instead of prioritizing our safety,” she charged, “they have focused on their own public image.”
Legionella is transmitted via water vapor, not in drinking water, and can cause serious pneumonia-like symptoms.
Health officials note that only two Haven Plaza residents have come down with Legionnaires’, compared with 92 in the Upper East Side cluster, including the seven who have died. But because the bacteria is in the AC cooling towers on the Upper East Side — and not in buildings’ water systems — there were no restrictions on drinking, bathing, showering or using air conditioning units within the Upper East Side’s targeted zip codes.
No such luck for residents of Haven Plaza, who’ve been hit with health department advisories that included explicit and at times contradictory restrictions.
To Bathe or Not To Bathe
In a June 23 handout to residents, Dr. Andrea Howard, deputy commissioner of disease control, advised “higher risk” individuals, including anyone 50 years or older or anyone who smokes, vapes, has chronic lung disease or a weakened immune system, not to take showers — not even cold showers — and to run the tub slowly to limit exposure to water vapor.
Days later, during a July 1 town hall at the complex, a health department staffer told residents their advisory had broadened, expanding the no-shower rule to all residents of Haven Plaza.
On Thursday, in response to questions about this apparent contradiction, a health department spokesperson, Rachel Vick, again limited the no-shower advice to “higher risk” residents, but added some new categories including anyone with chronic heart, kidney or liver disease or diabetes.
“I have been trying my hardest to figure out exactly what is going on,” Kristencara Ankuta, 41, who’s lived at Haven Plaza for three decades, said during a press conference at the plaza Thursday.
Councilmember Harvey Epstein, whose district includes Haven Plaza, said “tenants felt confused” and he called on city health officials and Wavecrest to make both the advice on behavior and the remediation effort more transparent.
Health department spokesperson Vick said the department has been “consistently engaged with Haven Plaza residents” and “is not only currently evaluating the building’s water system, but has ordered the building to conduct plumbing and mechanical work to their water system including repairs, adding flush valves, removing low flow areas, and installing the chemical treatment system for remediation.”
A spokesperson for Wavecrest and Catholic Homes said the remediation that began this week includes a “full water treatment and disinfection plan,” adding, “Management is fully committed to the health and safety of the residents and is providing regular updates to the tenant association.”
Wavecrest, however, did not answer questions about the timeline for remediation and an estimated completion date.
Seven people died in a Legionnaires’ outbreak in Harlem last year.
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