Legionella found at Forest Hills precinct before contamination became a threat

A small level of legionella bacteria was found at the 112th Precinct in Queens this month.  Screenshot via Google Maps

By Ryan Schwach

The bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease was discovered at a Forest Hills police station earlier this month, though the amount of bacteria found didn’t pose a real threat, officials said.

The NYPD and the city’s Department of Health confirmed that legionella was found in a cooling tower at the 112th Precinct on Austin Boulevard.

However, the level of contamination found was below harmful levels, and there are no concerns for public safety or confirmed cases among officers at the 112th.

“There is no risk to public health or the workforce there and no one has gotten sick,” the health department said. “It is also safe to drink the water and shower there.”

The bacteria was found during a routine check of the precinct’s cooling towers, and officers in the precinct were notified of the discovery on Sept. 2, according to an NYPD spokesperson.

“We wanted to be proactive and let people know,” the spokesperson said, adding that the “level two” contamination was not high enough to require the NYPD to disclose the discovery by law.

The health department said that the NYPD is “required to disinfect and clean its tower as part of NYC Legionnaires’ regulations,” which the department did last week.

“These actions follow our regulations and are a textbook example of how they are designed to proactively monitor and identify the presence of bacteria growing inside cooling towers and mitigate it before it becomes a risk,” the health department said.

Earlier this year, an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in the Upper East Side in Manhattan killed 11, including a prominent former Queens judge.

City Councilmember Lynn Schulman, whose district overlaps with the 112th and who chairs the Council’s Committee on Health, pushed a bill that recently went into effect that increased the frequency with which the city was required to check for Legionnaires.

She told the Eagle this is a prime example of the legislation working.

“They were able to find a small problem before it became a big problem,” the lawmaker said.