School Cooling Emergency Turns Into No-Cost Upgrade

For a rural county school district in Kentucky, it started with an emergency failure of a cooling tower used in conjunction with the school’s HVAC system. The old, metal-clad cooling tower at the area middle school had required significant maintenance over the years. However, the district was hoping to delay the expense of having to replace it along with another metal tower utilized by the high school that was also nearing end-of-life.

“They needed a new tower, fast. Theirs was in real bad shape from years of rust buildup and they were experiencing all kinds of leaks—panel leaks, gasket leaks, everything,” explained Zach McKinney, sales engineer at Bluegrass Hydronics and Pump, which helped the school district with the cooling tower replacement.

Often in an emergency situation, researching for optimal replacement options gets tossed aside for what can be done quickly and easily. Fortunately for the school district, the team at Bluegrass had experience with advanced engineered-plastic cooling towers. The units would end up solving the two biggest issues the school district was facing: budget and durability.

Going For The Grant

To cut costs, McKinney had a plan. He knew that some engineered plastic cooling towers are now being manufactured with antimicrobial properties. He believed this would qualify them for government funding under the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) program.

Created by the CARES act, ESSER funds are awarded to schools in need of repairing or improving facilities. The caveat being, those improvements must reduce exposure to environmental health hazards. Originally intended for COVID relief, the program was expanded in 2021 to include other environmental health and safety projects that do not have to be directly related to coronavirus.

Antimicrobial engineered-plastic cooling towers were first designed to help prevent the outbreak of the often-deadly Legionnaires’ Disease. Unlike metal towers, engineered plastic can be molded so that special antimicrobial additives are compounded throughout the plastic. These resins contain wide-spectrum additives that operate on a cellular level to continuously disrupt and prevent uncontrolled growth of microorganisms and biofilm within the cooling tower.

“It worked! The school district was awarded the grant and was able to acquire both towers at no out-of-pocket expense,” said McKinney.

A Textbook Case

The adoption of antimicrobial cooling towers has become increasingly important because of the growing number of outbreaks of Legionnaires’ Disease at numerous locations throughout North America. In fact, each year about 18,000 people are infected with the Legionella bacteria in the United States alone.

Legionnaires’ disease is a severe form of lung infection caused by exposure to bacteria known as Legionella. Found naturally in freshwater environments like lakes and streams, Legionella becomes a health hazard when it grows unabated in water that is not properly treated. While this can include showerheads, hot tubs and hot water heaters, a significant number of outbreaks have originated in cooling towers.

“A cooling tower is the prefect breeding ground for Legionella because it’s wet and humid and exposed to sunlight,” explained McKinney. “The Legionella will colonize the walls of the tower, and the colony will grow bigger and bigger.”

Cooling towers have a long history of effectively expelling heat from the water used in many commercial and industrial applications. However, even when they are disinfected and properly maintained cooling towers are potential breeding grounds for legionella, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).