Yankee Stadium cooling tower tests positive for Legionella
A cooling tower at Yankee Stadium is among 10 towers that tested positive for Legionella bacteria on Sunday as officials investigate an outbreak in the South Bronx. The New York City Department of Health ordered all towers with positive results to be cleaned and disinfected by Monday.
PCR testing can detect the presence of Legionella but cannot show whether the bacteria are alive, officials said, and does not confirm a cooling tower as the source of exposure. Only live Legionella can cause illness, they reiterated.
Officials urged anyone who lives, works or has visited the affected area since late August and develops flu-like symptoms to contact a health care provider immediately. They also said it is safe to shower, drink tap water and use air conditioners in the affected ZIP codes.
One person has died in connection with the South Bronx outbreak, and five cases have been confirmed, according to officials. An in-person town hall for residents is scheduled for Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Metropolitan College in the Bronx.
Yankee Stadium released a statement on Sunday night saying the tower had been cleaned and disinfected earlier that morning.
In 2024, the Yankees installed new, state-of-the-art, high-efficiency chiller towers at Yankee Stadium, which have undergone water quality and bacteriological indicator testing on a weekly basis over the last three years.
The statement said monthly testing provided to the NYC DOH on Aug. 20 returned negative results for Legionella bacteria. Subsequent weekly water quality and bacteriological indicator testing was performed on Aug. 26, Sept. 2 and Sept. 9.
The NYC Department of Health conducted 24 PCR tests of cooling towers in the Melrose and Morrisania areas of the Bronx, ZIP codes 10451 and 10456, including one at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 11, the statement said.
Yankee Stadium tested positive for trace amounts of Legionella bacteria and was one of 10 cooling towers in the Bronx that tested positive.
The statement said no current cases have been associated with Yankee Stadium, and that the New York City Department of Health has not at any point this month asked the team to postpone games. The Health Department is now conducting culture testing to determine whether live Legionella bacteria were present when the samples were collected, with results taking up to two weeks.
On the Upper East Side, a Legionnaires’ cluster claimed nine lives and led to more than 90 confirmed cases, with the outbreak first reported at the beginning of July.
