During the first 50 of warm-up I spotted poop this morning. I confirmed it on the 2nd 50 and got out to tell the coach. Eventually they closed the pool, cleaned it out and threw in some chlorine directly in to the pool. But then they reopened about 30 min later. I was a bit shocked that they opened it so soon. The pool is a 50 meter x 25 yard pool so pretty big and they only threw in one 5 gal bucket of chlorine before letting us all back in. Does that sound right? If I remember my life guarding days right, poop means several hours of shutting down.
I was disappointed to have the workout suspended but I certainly didn't want to risk us getting sick, either.
Former Member
My experience with poop in the pool is that the powers that be remove the duke, chlorinate the area, and cordon off a undetermined area for an undetermined time period.
I'm comfortable with this. Revenue lost by closing the pool could make the difference in staying open year round or seasonally.
Chlorine is pretty potent stuff. I've never heard of someone getting sick from a tots turd in the tub.
I've heard two methods on this - 6 hours and/or the approximate time it takes the pool water to recirc one time, which I guess might be the 6 hour thing. There is an epidemic of pooping in pools these days. It makes me crazy. I think if your kid craps in the pool, you lose pool rights for one week.
Are you sure what it was? It is an old trick to toss a baby ruth bar into the pool if the kids don't want to swim.
Trust me, it was clearly poop. Two spots. I have a 4 year old and I've seen my share of it so I can clearly tell what it is now.
I would love to find the parent who let their child poop and make them clean the pool. The pool is open to the public with a fee so anyone could have done this. And I'm sure it was done last night since we are the first ones in before it opens to the public.
Six hours sounds about right to me. 30 min seems way too short.
I have been swimming Masters for a while at our pool and happy that they have a seperate instructional pool. When **** happens, they cancel all instructional classes for that day, but none of the swim practices are affected because they are in a different pool.
I always wondered what happened to the kids who did the deed though. Recently I signed up my daughter for the 4-5 yr old class and part of the signup says that if your kid poops, you pay $200 and are banned from the pool. That was pretty good motivation to make sure she would not mess up.
David, is she going to the new Gwinnett pool?
There are several ways to handle the poop in the pool issue (known in the trade as an Accidental Fecal Release or AFR). Without getting too techincal, the "well formed stool" poses very little risk if chlorine levels are where they are supposed to be. Even the bad form of e-coli is destroyed nearly instantly by this level of chlorine. Sometimes supplemental chlorine is added more as a pr gesture than anything strictly health related. On the other hand, diahrea (sp?) is another matter. In that case you have to prepare for the worst case scenario of cryptosporidium being introduced. That requires a much longer contact time with chlorine. Eight hours at 20 parts per million of chlorine is considered adequate. The lower level of chlorine, the longer the required contact time. Things get a bit trickier with outdoor pools that use a chlorine stabilizer to conteract UV's impact on chlorine. In general, that chlorine is less effective as a disinfectant and contact time needs to be adjusted accordingly. Automatic chemical controlers that measure the water's oxidative reduction potential (ORP) are a much more accurate way to predict chlorine's effectiveness.
Sorry for the technical explaination, but I hope this helps.
Rich
Thanks Rich. This was a well formed piece until one of the team members tried to remove it with a cup. Then apparently it became particles every where. I am putting my faith that this place has kept good chlorine levels overall. I know their filtration system is not the best and they rarely vacuum. I was also the only family member once to get pink eye and it was on a day when they were dumping chlorine directly in to the pool. Let's just hope no one gets sick this time. The team has a big meet this weekend.
Recently I signed up my daughter for the 4-5 yr old class and part of the signup says that if your kid poops, you pay $200 and are banned from the pool. That was pretty good motivation to make sure she would not mess up.
Where is this being done and can it be cloned nationwide?
I think if your kid craps in the pool, you lose pool rights for one week.
One week? How about permanently! What are kids who aren't in diapers doing pooping in the pool? I don't get it.
In response to Rich's post, I'm wondering if the protocol is different for a PFR (purposeful fecal release)?
I served for a year on a member's aquatic cmte at a local pool and this is a very large and daunting problem for pools apparentely. No amount of signage, free elastic rubber diaper pant things, or any other idea proves very successful. All too often, the offending child's parents will whisk the kid out and high tail it home before fault can be assigned. When we were kids we never had this issue because kids under 4 were not allowed in the main pool. I also think the proliferation of the water park themed community pools makes parents go berserk and forget little Johnnie is a big dumper.
It has gotten so bad that one local pool has a "pool condition hotline" so that you can call ahead to see if the pool is closed due to weather or "accident." It's maddening. I'm glad I swim at an aquatic club and not a Y or kiddie pool.
