Opens in a new tab
Get a plan

Compliance · New Jersey only

New Jersey Water Management

New Jersey's water management deadline is December 12.

P.L. 2024, c.66 requires hospitals, care facilities, large residential buildings with central hot water, and any building with a cooling tower, evaporative condenser or other listed water device to have a written water management program that follows ASHRAE Standard 188. The program had to be written by September 12, 2026. By December 12, 2026 it has to be running, with a notice posted where occupants can see it.

Checked October 27, 2026. Both deadlines come from the statute itself; the Department of Health's rules have not been adopted. This page covers New Jersey only.

The dates

Written by September. Running by December.

The law took effect when it was signed on September 12, 2024, and set its own clock: 24 months to develop a program, 27 months to implement it. The development date has passed. Neither date waits for an agency rule.

Dec 12, 2026

The written program implemented, and a written public notice posted on the premises, where occupants can reach it, saying the program is in place.

New Jersey
Ongoing

The program, its procedures and every test result kept on the premises for at least five years and produced to the Department of Health immediately on request.

New Jersey

Who it reaches

Buildings by what they are, and by what they contain.

The law lists facility types and device types. An office building with a cooling tower is covered for the tower and nothing else; a nursing home is covered for its whole water system.

Device

Any building with a listed device

  • DevicesOpen- or closed-circuit cooling towers and evaporative condensers serving HVAC or refrigeration; whirlpools, spas and pools; indoor ornamental fountains; misters, atomizers, air washes, humidifiers and other devices that release water aerosols
  • ScopeThe program covers the listed device, not the whole building
  • SamplingOptional; the program decides
Care

Hospitals and care facilities

  • WhoLicensed hospitals with inpatient services; nursing homes, assisted living residences, comprehensive personal care homes, residential health care facilities and dementia care homes
  • ScopeThe building's water systems
  • SamplingRequired, including Legionella pneumophila
Housing

Residential and lodging with central hot water

  • High-riseSix or more floors with a centralized potable water heater
  • LodgingA centralized water heater shared by 25 or more transient units, such as a hotel or motel
  • Senior and disability housingSubsidized or designated senior housing with a centralized water heater shared by 25 or more units
Other

Correctional facilities and outbreak buildings

  • CorrectionalPublic or private correctional facilities with centralized potable hot water
  • OutbreakAny building the Department or a local health officer associates with a Legionnaires' disease outbreak, for the period they set; sampling required
  • ExcludedResidential properties with four or fewer dwelling units

New and repurposed buildings. A building that is newly built or repurposed has to confirm that its program controls the exposure risk before its systems are commissioned. The law does not name replacement equipment, but our reading is that the same order applies to a new cooling tower: update the program for the new device before it starts.

What the program contains

A written program, and the records that prove it runs.

The law points to ASHRAE Standard 188, the 2018 edition or a later one, for what a program is. The standard and the Department of Health's template follow the same sequence. No credential is named for the person who writes it.

1

Team and system description

Who runs the program, a description of each water system and covered device, and a flow diagram that matches the building as built.
2

Hazards and control limits

Where water can stagnate, sit in the temperature range Legionella favors, or lose its disinfectant, and the measured limit for each control: temperature, biocide residual, conductivity, flushing interval.
3

Monitoring and corrective action

Who checks each limit, how often, and what happens when a reading is out of range, written down before the reading comes back.
4

Verification, validation and records

Proof the program is followed and proof it works, contingency plans for a positive result or a reported case, and records kept on the premises for at least five years.

Sampling. Sampling is required for hospitals, the listed care facilities, outbreak buildings and anywhere the CDC recommends it. Everywhere else the law says a program may include it. Any sampling done under a program has to include Legionella pneumophila, and positive results are handled under ASHRAE 188 and CDC guidance.

What the State has published

A template and a recommendation. No rules yet.

The law asked the Department of Health for guidance within a year and for rules, written with the Department of Environmental Protection, within two. As of October 27, 2026 no rules have been proposed or adopted. What the Department has posted is useful, and it is not law.

Template

The Department's program template

The template follows ASHRAE 188 step by step and has appendices for cooling towers, hot tubs and fountains with example control limits. Its opening survey uses ASHRAE 188's own triggers, which reach further than the statute's list (a building over ten stories, for example). The statute decides who is legally covered; the template is a way to write the program.
Towers

The letter to cooling tower operators

The Department's letter to tower operators (last updated March 2025) recommends offline cleaning and disinfection at least once a year and Legionella testing at least every three months while the tower operates. Those are recommendations rather than the statute's terms; a program that adopts them has a defensible basis.

What can still change. The rules may add a sampling cadence, a registry or a credential requirement. The law does not require any agency to review a program unless it is investigating a case of Legionnaires' disease, but the Department has already cited the statute in an August 2026 enforcement order against a licensed long-term care facility. Write the program to the standard now, and expect to amend it.

Penalties and cost

Up to $2,000, then $5,000. $10,000 if someone is hurt.

Failing to implement a program, or to show that it is being followed, can be pursued by the State in court under the Penalty Enforcement Law of 1999 or as a Department of Health administrative penalty, with 35 days to request a hearing. The Departments of Health, Environmental Protection and Community Affairs can also seek an injunction. The law funds nothing: the Legislature's own fiscal estimate put compliance at $2,000 to $10,000 or more per building, and that cost sits with the owner.

Where controls fit

Much of a tower program's monitoring is already a control point.

A cooling-tower program is mostly operating discipline: water temperature, biocide residual, conductivity and blowdown, circulation during standby, and a record that each was checked on schedule.

Trend

What the building automation system can carry

Conductivity and blowdown, condenser-water temperature, metered makeup water, fan and pump runtime, and circulation while the tower is on standby can come from points the system has or can add, and the trend log becomes part of the program's record. That depends on the points available, network and cybersecurity approval, and who owns the alarms.
Manual

What stays with people and the lab

Biocide residual checks, physical inspection of fill and drift eliminators, cleaning, and laboratory Legionella results stay with the operator and the water-treatment vendor. The program names who does each; a review shows where a trend can replace a clipboard and where it cannot.
Repair, replace or remove a tower →

One building, one device list

Whether c.66 reaches your building, and what its program has to cover.

Send the building's address, what it is used for, and the water devices it has: towers, evaporative condensers, spas or pools, fountains, humidifiers, and how its hot water is made. We reply by email with which parts of the law apply, which devices the program must cover, whether sampling is required, and which of the program's checks the building's controls can already record. We are not a laboratory or a water-treatment vendor, and a program is not a legal opinion.

Until the screening tool is live, this is a short intake form.

Sources and dates

  • P.L. 2024, c.66 (S2188, first reprint), approved September 12, 2024, §§5–9; N.J.S.A. 58:12A-12.10 et seq. and 26:1A-139 to -142. OLS fiscal estimate for S2188.
  • New Jersey Department of Health, Legionnaires' Disease page (updated September 23, 2026): Water Management Program Template; "Dear Building Owner, Manager, or Operator" letter to cooling tower operators (last updated March 2025).
  • New Jersey Department of Health, Curtailment of Admissions and Directed Plan of Correction, August 12, 2026 (a licensed long-term care facility in Camden County; cites N.J.S.A. 26:1A-140).
  • ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 188, Legionellosis: Risk Management for Building Water Systems (2018 edition or later).
  • Last reviewed October 27, 2026. Re-checked before December 12, 2026, and whenever the Department of Health or the Department of Environmental Protection proposes rules.