Last year’s Legionnaires’ outbreak that killed seven people and sickened 100 others has been linked to an unplugged computer and a busted valve, a new $40 million Manhattan lawsuit claims.
The suit — filed Wednesday by four sickened hardhats against the city and mega-builder Skanska in Manhattan Supreme Court — 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.
Without a proper internet connection, the automated controller on the cooling tower — designed to upload water-quality data continuously — lacked “real time notification…when water quality data indicated potential lack of biocide treatment and poor water quality,” the suit states.
“We 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,” said Jared Scotto, the workers’ lawyer, to The Post.
But the concrete cause of the breakout at the tower at the then-under-construction municipal site next to Harlem Hospital 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.
That allowed the deadly bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ Disease to rapidly build up and left the workers “exposed and sickened,” 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.
The lawsuit concludes that the outbreak at the West 137th Street site was due to “several days” in mid July where the chlorine levels were lower than normal — despite routine treatment — which may have given the bacteria time to grow.
The city Health Department — in its report about the deadly outbreak this past spring — also listed a number of other factors that contributed to the bacteria’s growth at the water tower, including a “complex engineering design” and “improper startup procedures.”
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.
The city’s report was able to definitely link eight of the Legionnaires’ cases directly to the lab but said it likely contributed to many more.
The lab site and its tower is next to Harlem Hospital, whose own water system helped fuel the outbreak, too, the city found.
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’s “diligent” investigation into the outbreak while also naming the city as a defendant, claiming negligence.
“The people that were responsible for making sure that this dangerous machine was working as it should just weren’t paying attention,” the lawyer said.
“And we believe that underpins the indifference to the community. We’re looking forward to getting justice for the individuals and the families that were affected by this.”
A rep for Skanska told The Post, “We are aware of the complaint and are reviewing its contents.”
City officials declined comment.
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