Since 1992 Tower Water has been working on protecting business’ infrastructure, specifically HVAC piping systems, equipment, and cooling towers. The company has since brought on more experts in the field of Water Treatment, Legionella, and specialty cleaning. Tower Water was founded by Russell Baskin, a mechanical engineer, with over 35 years of experience in the water treatment industry in New York City. Noah Baskin who specialized in Water System Construction Consulting, Cleaning, and Water Treatment was also brought onto the team, and was able to develop specialized equipment that was able to outperform others in the chemical cleaning marketplace.
After the Legionella outbreak in 2015, their team has been dedicated to protecting their client’s businesses against this deadly bacteria and the fines that can come from not implementing a proper water safety plan. This is accomplished through their Legionella Compliance Division. With their complete team, of experts, they’ve become the “Go-To” water treatment company in the NY Metro area, their focus is to help buildings and facilities ensure their systems are running properly and safely.
What Does A Defense Plan Consist Of?
In order to have a well-rounded and consistent plan to eliminate any DOH violations, there are a few key aspects that should be involved.
Work With The Proper Professionals
Working with the right team is the first step to ensuring your water treatment, and legionella compliance is going to be done properly. Having a team of experts on your side will help your systems run safely and ensure you are avoiding any violations or warnings for mistreatment. Tower Water is the leading expert when it comes to water treatment solutions. They have been handling hundreds of systems for many years and have perfected the treatment process from assessment and testing to cleaning and treatment.
Tower Water’s Legionella Compliance Division specializes in the risk assessment of the building and tenants, development of a water safety plan, training, legionella testing, and other preventive recommendations to prevent Legionnaires disease. Having them lead your team is the best way to ensure your water systems and features are entirely free of dangerous Legionella bacteria.
Legionella also comes with a lot of regulations and requirements to ensure the safety of those utilizing the water. Andrew Ricks is Certified in ASSE 12080 and an expert when it comes to ASHRAE 188. He will ensure that you will not be missing any aspect of the regulations. The Tower Water team also has individuals who are experts in handling DOH Court appearances and are knowledgeable on Local law 77. Having a team on your side who is familiar with the legal side of water treatment, and Legionnaires’ disease, is going to ensure that your building is taken care of when it comes to defending against any DOH violations or other health-related issues.
Risk Removal
A proper defense plan is going to remove any risk involved with the treatment, operation and maintenance of your water systems. This includes the risk of having any DOH Violations or any health concerns associated with improper water treatment. A solid defense plan will also aid in avoiding any fear of improper equipment operation and maintenance which will prevent Health & Safety Concerns or Legal Action. By staying proactive and working with a professional team you are going to create a defense plan that will rid yourself and your facility of any fear that would come from being involved in any sort of violation or even worse, legal action being taken due to improper treatment and safety.
Easy To Follow
The best defense plans are not only fully protective but also easy to understand and follow. The functionality of your plan needs to be read properly and easily accessible. Providing customers with on-site training and onboarding is a great way to help new and existing clients understand their management plan. It also helps them fully grasp what is involved with keeping their systems running properly and safely. Having organized checklists is going to help the internal team perform accurately and be very transparent with their clients on the work that they are providing.
Tower Water and their Legionella Compliance Division provide their clients with access to this type of information and give them simple how-to videos and resources on their website. These were created with our clients in mind to help them understand what is happening throughout the process. Quarterly on-site inspections by TW’s compliance inspectors make sure a concern is noticed before the DOH and makes sure every aspect of the plan is being executed correctly.
Full And Open Communication
The best way to feel confident in your water treatment plan is to be able to work closely with your providing team and know that they are taking their job seriously and doing their work properly. Both, Tower Water and their Legionella Compliance Division are working together to help their clients with clear and open communication so that there are no surprises when it comes to their inspections by the DOH and their water management plans. While we are working with chemicals and treating your systems with the precise amount of products daily, our digital smart controllers email a Tower Water technical account manager should there ever be a problem. Notifying the facility and our staff immediately is something that seems futuristic, but it’s important for us to stay on top of issues before they become major problems.
The Smart Controller also can perform testing 3x a week for engineers as well as log current inventory. This automatic feature lets you be confident that your daily responsibility is going to be taken care of without the risk that you haven’t performed your daily tasks. The Smart Virtual Water Management Plan logs are also a great way for you to save time dealing with paperwork. Controllers will send daily readings to your email and the smart binder. Any reports performed by TW and tasks you perform on a smart device will immediately be entered into the correct section of your smart binder. The Smart Binder is accessed through a QR Code which allows you to digitally log your information to ensure you are capturing all the data you need for any DOH inspection.
There is also an automatic feature that can tell if something is missing or inaccurate at a glance. These tools help us as the experts and you as the managers to ensure your water treatment is working properly. They also give you the confidence of knowing you are keeping your facilities and tenants safe and are actively avoiding violations.
What Type Of Companies Are Out There And How Do You Choose One?
There are a few different companies that offer a variety of water treatment and legionella services. Finding a company that serves all your needs is the best way to ensure that your water defense, treatment, and compliance plan is the best that it can be. Below is a table demonstrating the different kinds of companies and what kind of services they provide.
? = Some may have this service
As you can see, many companies are offering lots different services, but working with Tower Water is going to ensure that you are having everything you need in a water defense plan from one company.
How Do I Select A Trusted Partner? Does Size Matter?
The best solution to find the right water treatment plan for defense against DOH violations, legionella, and deterioration of HVAC systems is to get with the best partners. Here are a few items to look for when deciding who is the best company in your area.
Attitude
It is important that you get a company that suits “your needs” and “solves your problems”. You want to work with a company that is aware of the needs and outcomes you desire and is open to communicating with you. Their team should be intimately involved with your people and your systems in order to produce the best outcomes.
Values
Your values and their company’s values must align. At Tower Water, our ideal client values “Response”, “Reliability to a Fault”, “Can Do Attitude” (we try to say yes whenever we can), “Passion for What We Do” and “Care About Reputation, Both Yours and Ours”. Finding a team that can embody the same values is going to help make an ideal working relationship.
Size
In this case, a bigger company is not always better. All companies have a “sweet spot”. Finding a local company that is capable of taking your needs properly without being too overwhelmed is going to be key in finding the right fit. If their average account is $200,000 and your account is $25,000, realize that your supplier will probably give their priority to the larger account. It is important to find out how you compare to some of their other clients to make sure that you are getting the best results and customer service.
Response
You will want a team that will be responsive and active when you need them. Will they show up when they’re called? If there is any emergency that does occur, you want to make sure your team will be on top of the issue and respond quickly. The protection of your systems is critical, therefore the response is critical, and when an emergency happens immediate response is crucial. Make sure you are asking companies their average response time and emergency action plans.
Service And Service Load
Service is only as good as the people that know your account. Make sure the same people are coming to your account for service, that they are committed to the time it takes to complete the service and that emergency service is available if needed. You must learn who they are, like them, trust them, and believe that they have you and your facilities’ best interest in mind.
When And Why Should I Use A Consultant?
Consultants are becoming more popular in this space, however they are expensive and often do not yield the expected value. The reasons why you may need a consultant are the same reasons why you may want to change your water treatment company. Here are some reasons you want to change your water treatment:
- DOH Violations
- Poor or inefficient working HVAC systems
- Wasting of water electricity
- Constant overcharging or extras
- They don’t produce the outcomes you want, or they promised
- Lack of trust
- Lack of results
- You lack the knowledge to know if you are getting what you are paying for.
If you are considering a consultant, you will want to talk with them and make sure they can provide the service that you need before deciding to sign up. Consultants will generally force you to go out to bid for these services, and sell you other services to stay involved forever. You might not know if the company of choice is meeting the spec. Having a company that can provide you with an excellent reference of full-service water treatment may save you in the long run.
What Is Our (Building’s) Part In Our Water Safety?
Water is the blood of your building, pumps are the heart, and HVAC equipment is like the organs in your body. For the most part, Water Treatment Companies are on-site monthly, and Legionella compliance is checked quarterly. It is critical to do your part. The Department of Health requires that someone in the building act as a responsible person these duties should include:
- 3x / week testing of water
- Weekly inspections of Water treatment and cooling tower
- Chemical inventory
- Bio-dip slide testing
- Scheduling/Coordinating Tower Cleanings and Disinfections
- Start-up and Shutdown of seasonal systems
- Uploading and Updating DOH websites
- Maintaining all records for 3 years
*Some if not all these duties can be handled by the Water Treatment partner or smart equipment if available.
Make sure you know the tasks that you are responsible for to stay within the regulations of the DOH and ensure that you won’t come across any violations. Working with a company like Tower Water will help you work through these aspects and keep your responsibilities under control.
What Do I Do If I Believe I Have The Right Company, But The Representatives Are Not Meeting My Needs?
Once you have found the best company to work with, getting your team on board will be the next step. Below are a few things that you should do in order to get everyone one the same page and be able to move forward with your water treatment plan.
Step one – See the manager overseeing the property and have a discussion. This should in turn trigger an immediate response, and if it does not, move to step two.
Step two – Reach out to a trusted colleague to see who they use and make sure they can meet your needs. A Regardless of the outcome utilize step three.
Step three –Reach out to Tower Water! An account executive can show you the outcomes that can be produced by an authority in the water treatment industry. Tower water focuses on protecting your equipment, maximizing your efficiency, keeping legionella and the DOH at bay and providing “peace of mind” “right from the start.”
Why Work With Tower Water
Working with a top team is critical to ensuring that your building will have the best defense against any violation or risks that are involved with water in your building. Tower Water and their Legionella Compliance Division team are experts in their industry and are able to provide you with the best services in the New York area. Below are a few reasons why you should contact us to get your water treatment plan ready to go.
Revenue Growth – We will help grow your building to full occupancy.
Reduce Expense – We will reduce your overall expenses in terms of Water, Energy, Manpower, and Violations.
Risk Reduction – We will reduce the chance of legionella, equipment failure, and Violations.
Great Experience For On Site Employees– Your people know when we’re coming, and we are prepared to provide the maximum amount of value in the minimum amount of time. We are easy to work with and know that your “main” focus is on your tenants, rather than our services.
Proper documentation – “If it wasn’t written it wasn’t said.” We make sure that everything is properly documented so your team doesn’t miss important issues.
Great Tenant’s Experience – Since your employees are knowledgeable on the water safety plan, they will be able to answer tenants effectively and efficiently, all the while knowing that you have an expert on staff. Also, since engineers have been rectifying the issues found, the tenants do not see concerns with their HVAC system.
Managers/ Engineers have “peace of mind” – Because of our values, and especially our response, clients know they have chosen the right company. They also understand that the value of our partnership is part of the facility’s overall success. All parties are put at ease knowing they have a trusted partner.
Contact Tower Water Today!
As you consider who to trust with your water treatment efforts, remember that the stakes are high. You have compliance and regulations to consider but also the health and safety of the people who live and work near your facility. This is why a reputable water treatment company is a must. At Tower Water, we set the standard in water treatment and are always happy to provide a fully customized plan unique to your building and cooling tower setup. Reach out to schedule an appointment to discuss your options for the present and the future.