LANCASTER, Pa. (WHTM) – Legionella bacteria was first detected at the Lancaster County prison back in August. A former inmate tested positive for legionnaires disease which is a lung infection caused by the legionella bacteria.

The prison turned to Guardian CSC, a York-based company, to install monochloramine generators. It pumps a disinfectant into the water to kill the bacteria.

Two generators were installed on November 28th. However, flushing and testing the water has been happening this whole time.

“Approximately 150 tests have been completed. We did testing as recent as yesterday,” Warden Cheryl Steberger-Simione said. Hopefully getting those results back sometime next week. But this will be ongoing.”

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A lot of the issues have been where most of the inmates are housed.

“[The issues are] mostly in our newer part of our jail which are the high rises that are behind the castle as you are looking at it from the front,” Steberger-Simione said.

The high rises were a part of the latest renovations to the prison back in the early 1990s. Around 600 inmates are housed in the high rises.

The prison currently has about 750 inmates in total and can hold over a thousand, meaning not all of the cells are being used.

Those cells still need to be flushed.

“It’s a constant. Not all cells are occupied here. Not all sinks and toilets get used so there are weekly flushings allowing the water to run in those areas too,” Steberger-Simione said.

The warden says this system is here to stay.

“As long as we’re here we will continue to have this process in place and monitor it very closely,” she said.

It’s a process to get rid of all traces of the legionella bacteria. Officials say the results aren’t where they want them to be yet.

With the system still less than a month old at the prison, a spotless test wasn’t expected.

But being legionella-free is the warden’s hope.

“Zero is where we want to be,” Steberger-Simione said. “That’s the ultimate goal.”

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