(The Saginaw News posted the following story by Scott Davis on its website on April 8.)
SAGINAW, Mich. — CSX Transportation Inc. has shut down water lines at its Saginaw facilities after finding higher-than-normal levels of the bacteria that cause Legionnaire’s disease.
CSX tested the water after doctors last week detected high levels of the bacteria in a 56-year-old employee. CSX officials informed Saginaw County health officials Monday of the water results.
“They’re removing water heaters, drinking fountains and low usage (water) lines,” said Kevin Datte, director of environmental health for the Saginaw County Department of Public Health. “They were going to bring in an alternate water supply (of bottled water).”
Datte did not characterize the situation as a potential health crisis for the community.
The Legionella bacteria is found naturally in safe levels in water, he said, but it can build to dangerous levels in older plumbing with stagnant or low-circulating water.
Those with Legionnaire’s disease typically have fever, chills and a cough, and some also have muscle aches, headache, tiredness, loss of appetite and diarrhea.
An estimated 8,000 to 18,000 people get Legionnaire’s disease in the United States each year. Some people have mild symptoms or no illness at all. About 5 percent to 30 percent of people who have Legionnaire’s disease die.
John Winden, the health department’s communicable disease nurse, said the county’s last case of Legionnaire’s disease was late last year.
Norman D. Houck, a 47-year-old Carrollton Township man, contacted The News on Monday to say that he was hospitalized Dec. 20 with the disease.
With high fever, diarrhea and weakness, he remained at Saint Mary’s hospital for two weeks until returning home. He returned to work a month later as a machine operator at Delphi Saginaw Steering Systems.
He said he still suffers occasional symptoms when the illness flares up.
“It’s very excruciating,” Houck said. “After 22 years in the Army reserves, it was the first time I ever begged to die. I would hate to see anybody else go through that.”
CSX officials said some Saginaw employees already have undergone testing for the bacteria, and the company is offering free testing to all others. Results of those tests are not yet available.
Monday, two environmental health firms — Novi-based Clayton Group Services and Dallas-based Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health — were handling the job of flushing out CSX’s water lines and removing bacteria, said Adam Hollingsworth, CSX spokesman.
“Our No. 1 priority is to ensure the safety of the employees and the Saginaw community,” Hollingsworth said. “That’s why we brought in the top experts.”
The Jacksonville, Fla.-based company employs 250 people at its rail yard bordered by Norman to the north, Wadsworth to the south, North Washington to the west and Veterans Memorial Parkway to the east.
Legionnaire’s disease is a pneumonia-like illness that is spread through direct contact with bacteria-infected water or mists. It is not spread person-to-person.
“This is not a concern for Saginaw,” said Datte, adding it is isolated to CSX.
The 56-year-old man does not have a full-blown case of Legionnaire’s disease and has not suffered symptoms of the illness, Winden said.
Doctors detected the bacteria in the man’s urine after he entered Saint Mary’s hospital for an unrelated medical procedure, Winden said.
CSX officials said the man remains hospitalized but declined to release further information about his condition Monday. He is among 20 employees of a CSX division that repairs rail cars.
Hollingsworth said CSX officials immediately notified county health officials of the employee’s infection when they learned of it last week. The water-flushing and remediation project will take at least a week and likely will not affect railway operations, he said.t