State health officials have identified one possible source of this week's Legionnaires' disease outbreak, but haven't reached any conclusions.

Water tests revealed small amounts of the bacteria that causes Legionnaires' in a cooling tower at Sunharbor Manor Residential Health Care Facility in Roslyn Heights, where two residents died and another two fell ill with the disease. One resident of Sunrise Assisted Living in Smithtown died from the disease, and three others there were hospitalized.

Jeffrey Hammond, of the New York State Department of Health, said the case isn't closed with the positive test at Sunharbor Manor.

"It'd be premature for me to speculate on the cause and effect," Hammond said.

Worldwide Water Technologies, a private company that conducted the tests, said just one of the 20 tests at Sunharbor Manor returned positive. According to Stan Klein, of Worldwide Water Technologies, the amount of bacteria in the water cooler was within the state's permissible limits.

"We may never find out the true source of this," Klein said. "We're doing the best we can."

Health department officials said results from additional testing won't be available for a couple of weeks.

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