A bill to be introduced in the New York City Council Wednesday would require the health department the mandate to conduct spot inspections towers used to store drinking water.

Water towers — the ubiquitous, cylindrical structures that are an iconic part of the city's skyline — are often breeding grounds for bacteria and collecting pools for cockroaches and dead birds. A City & State report earlier this year found widespread neglect when it comes to inspections, along with limited oversight from the city health department. 

Under current law, building owners must have their water towers inspected at least once a year. Since the owners control who performs the inspections and when, critics say many building owners to clean the towers just before inspection. The overall effect, they say, is a distorted picture of the cleanliness of those water tanks.

"We need to make sure we're diagnosing what's actually happening day to day in these water tanks so we can take the appropriate steps to remedy that," said Councilman Costa Constantinides, who represents northwestern Queens and co-authored the bill. "If not, we're putting too many New Yorkers at risk."

Water towers are separate from cooling towers, which regulate certain air conditioning systems and are often responsible for spreading the bacteria that cause Legionnaires' Disease. A WNYC report earlier this year also found widespread neglect of a law meant to better track and inspect cooling towers.