Pool closed due to poop - question

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. Talking about poop...something you are finally qualified to discuss...

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 "AFR" is classic. Maybe we can refer to Geek's postings as "AFRs" just for fun. Tim

How do you cordon off circulating water? You don't. You cordon off an area. Just as there would be a high density of chlorinated water when you dump in five gallons of chlorine, there would be a high density of poop molecules close to the prize. Remove the offending loaf and circulating water should diffuse the density of duce molecules. What the acceptable level of caca molecules are is a question best answered by others.

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. 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.

i propose mandatory pre-swim colonics for everyone under 10 and over 90.

This case is rather bad as it seems to have stayed in the pool overnight! I think they should drain the pool completely. part of the signup says that if your kid poops Sounds like a good rule, but I wonder whether it has ever been actually applied to anyone. I tend to think it's very unlikely to catch the kid who did it. And who says only kids are the ones that could have done it? Once when I lived in a Y, I found a whole "well formed" piece of poop in the shower. I knew there were no kids there.

I am happy to report that we had a poop-free practice today :)

So, um, just thinking about this. In an open water swim, such as a lake or an ocean, how much "poop" particulate matter do you think is floating around out there. Whales poop, birds poop, fish evacuate, heck even starfish let go daily, not to mention all the wild animals that defecate upstream to our lakes. Then there is the rather large sewage dump from our cities and towns, not to mention the groundwater contamination from the septic systems of houses that line the lakes. Of course, fecal contamination is likely the least of the problem. PCBs, murcury, and various industrial solvents are dumped daily into our sewage systems, and everything finds its way to the sea eventually. Considering all that, I would think that cleaning up the visible fecal matter, boosting the chlorine count in the pool and allowing ample dilution time would be quite effective. Many (most?) people have a fair bit of fecal contamination on their back-side to start with, all of which is washed off into the pool within the first few minutes of their swim. Somethings are best just not thought about.

Hoping for the closure of this thread...my appetite has been severely affected these last two days :shakeshead:

So, um, just thinking about this. In an open water swim, such as a lake or an ocean, how much "poop" particulate matter do you think is floating around out there. Whales poop, birds poop, fish evacuate, heck even starfish let go daily, not to mention all the wild animals that defecate upstream to our lakes. Then there is the rather large sewage dump from our cities and towns, not to mention the groundwater contamination from the septic systems of houses that line the lakes. Of course, fecal contamination is likely the least of the problem. PCBs, murcury, and various industrial solvents are dumped daily into our sewage systems, and everything finds its way to the sea eventually. Considering all that, I would think that cleaning up the visible fecal matter, boosting the chlorine count in the pool and allowing ample dilution time would be quite effective. Many (most?) people have a fair bit of fecal contamination on their back-side to start with, all of which is washed off into the pool within the first few minutes of their swim. Somethings are best just not thought about. My thoughts exactly. Best not to dwell on it and just keep swimming. If we stopped to think of all the fecal molecules, urine, sweat, snot, spit, bile, oils, the crud between our toes, ear wax, dead skin flakes, old band-aids, hair, whatever is on the pool deck, etc, etc, etc that end up in the pool immediately after a group of people gets in…. no one would ever swim.