Contractor found ‘scary’ bacteria levels at CalPERS headquarters — but agency wasn’t notified

The amount of bacteria discovered in a shower head at a CalPERS’ headquarters building should have alarmed the contractor that found it in 2019, according to an expert on the kind of bacteria that was found.

The shower head had about 148 times more legionella bacteria than the amount regulators consider a “high” risk, according to summer 2019 test results.

“I would say it’s scary” high, Tim Keane, a Pennsylvania-based legionella expert, said Thursday.

But Colliers International, the company that manages the Q Street headquarters buildings, didn’t take aggressive action and didn’t notify CalPERS of its findings, according to reports and CalPERS officials.

CalPERS Chief Executive Officer Marcie Frost held a virtual Q&A with employees Thursday morning, after The Sacramento Bee reported on Wednesday that Colliers had discovered legionella in most of CalPERS’ hot water sources. Frost said no one has reported getting sick from the bacteria since the system notified employees last week.

CalPERS provided 2019 and 2020 test results to The Bee this week. The results show an extremely high level of bacteria in one shower head. The other results were within more common ranges, from moderately high levels in two sinks and another shower to moderately low levels in two ice machines and low levels from other sources.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there is no known safe level of the bacteria, but guidelines from most U.S. authorities define a “low” level of bacteria that is an acceptable risk.

The bacteria is measured in “colony forming units” per milliliter. Levels under one CFU are generally considered a low, acceptable risk for potable water. One to nine is moderately low, 10-99 is moderately high and 100 or more is high. The measurement in the shower head was 14,850 CFU, according to the results. The other results ranged from less than 1 to 45 CFU/mL.

The reports prepared for Colliers say any findings above one CFU are “unacceptable,” regardless of the strain of legionella identified, and mean that “some measure of response is required.”

Colliers “thoroughly cleaned all shower heads,” after the 2019 findings, CalPERS told employees, but there is no indication the company took action to try to eradicate the bacteria from the water system.

Colliers didn’t respond to questions about its response Thursday. Neither did a senior scientist from the San Diego office of Netherlands-based company Arcadis, who prepared the reports for Colliers.

In a statement Tuesday, a spokeswoman representing the company said Colliers followed “state guidelines.” California doesn’t have state-specific guidelines, according to the Department of Industrial Relations, but may direct employers to federal OSHA standards.

CalPERS hired Rocklin-based ENTEK Consulting Group this week to review water reports back to 2015 and recommend a new approach to dealing with the bacteria, spokesman Wayne Davis said Thursday. Among the consultant’s objectives will be trying to identify the source of the bacteria, Davis said.

Most building owners outside the health care, long-term care and hotel industries don’t test for legionella. CalPERS does the tests as part of an environmental certification process for its buildings.

The strain of legionella identified in the shower in 2019 wasn’t the one associated with most outbreaks of illness. But the finding, combined with smaller amounts of bacteria found at other sources in the buildings, showed conditions were right for more growth, Keane said.

By summer 2020, the bacteria had reached significant levels at most of the hot water sources in CalPERS’ buildings, reports show. Most employees were working remotely by then due to the coronavirus.

One cooling tower on top of the Lincoln Plaza West building had results marked “TNTC,” an acronym that in microbiology commonly means “too numerous to count,” for the most dangerous strain of the bacteria in 2020.

Representatives from Rocklin-based Excelchem Laboratories, which processed the tests, didn’t respond to questions Thursday about what bacteria levels are too high for it to count.

The cooling towers are on the roofs, which aren’t accessible to employees.

Legionella is often harmless, but it can cause Legionnaires’ disease, a type of pneumonia that can be deadly in some people and is most dangerous for those over 50, who smoke or who have underlying health risks or compromised immune systems.

The retirement system learned it had legionella in its water in July 2020, when a whistleblower from Colliers emailed to say the company hadn’t been disclosing 2020 test results, Frost said.

CalPERS learned about the 2019 test results about seven weeks ago, after asking Colliers for them at the request of union SEIU Local 1000, Frost said.

Colliers should have notified CalPERS of the findings under the terms of its contract, Dallas Stone, chief of CalPERS’ Operations Support Services Division, said in the Q&A.

CalPERS is still waiting on December test results.

This story was originally published January 22, 2021 at 12:18 PM with the headline "Contractor found ‘scary’ bacteria levels at CalPERS headquarters — but agency wasn’t notified."