Cooling Tower Safety and Maintenance

Learn from a company that assumed its towers were safe: Aligning debris management and water-treatment procedures is key to cooling tower safety and efficiency.

In 2001, a major worldwide automobile manufacturer experienced a tragedy when four maintenance employees at one facility became ill with pneumonia-like symptoms that ultimately claimed the lives of two. The cause: Legionnaires' disease, caused by the Legionella bacteria found in one of the automaker's process cooling towers. The company quickly moved to conduct a cause analysis by inspecting its cooling towers worldwide to identify how systems were being maintained and to determine best maintenance practices. This ultimately led to the establishment of a world-class monitoring and maintenance procedure that ensures such a tragedy will never be repeated at the company.