Metro Health Departments Concerned About Health Hazards Caused by Ban on Swimming Pools
(note: Guest post by Craig Sears)
County Health Departments across the metro Atlanta area are rightfully concerned about the health hazards of unmaintained pools, which will occur if pools are not allowed to open this summer. Unmaintained pools can quickly turn into breeding grounds for mosquitoes that spread West Nile virus, and bacteria.
The use of mosquito killing chemicals might help, but would be totally unenforceable, and installing pool covers would be very expensive and still may not prevent mosquitoes from propagating.
County Health Departments will be unable and unprepared to enforce proper pool maintenance by homeowners. Draining pools is not a good solution either because:
- Leaving a pool drained for an extended period of time (like the entire summer) can cause structural damage to the pool itself, without the weight of the water in it.
- After the first rain, we’re back where we started, with a stagnant pool of water.
- Why would we want to waste all the perfectly good water we have in our pools when we are in the middle of a drought?
According to John Gormley, there were 9 confirmed cases of West Nile in Fulton county in Summer 2007. Furthermore, there is a new mosquito spread disease found in Europe now with much higher mortality rates. He quoted 40-50% in a presentation he gave to the APSP (Association of Pool and Spa Professionals) on January 8 at the Georgia Pool and Spa Forum in Roswell.
I’ve asked John for further documentation about this new disease. When I have further specific information, I will add comments to this article.
Craig
January 10th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Sweet Jesus! Death by swimming pool! How many different ways is this drought gonna bite us?
I’ve never noticed: does Atlanta roll out anti-mosquito chemical spray trucks during the summer? When I was growing up in Ohio, they were a common sight every summer evening, and I thought they did a pretty good job of controlling mosquito population.
January 10th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Best to halt any permits for any new pool construction till drought is over. Existing pools are a problem during this epic drought. Unsure what is best solution for this problem.
January 10th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
HBL > no mosquito control in my area near Stone Mountain, but when I lived in Florida spraying took place all the time.
January 10th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
I wonder whether we would want the pools as a means to stay cool, or, in worst case, as an immediately available large container of water for fire fighting or even drinking consumption.
The issue of equity in the water might be worth thinking about: in a bonafide crisis, who should own or have rights to the water in the pool? - the individual pool owner because they paid for the water and the means to store it. Or would the State government exercise powers of eminent domain to control a precious resource to accomplish the greatest public good, while compensating the owner for the water at some pre-drought market price?
January 10th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Southern Son,
You raise a good question.
In fighting the California wildfires, helicopters were scooping water out of swimming pools and dumping it on the fires. It is my understanding that the fire department has the right to drain your swimming pool to put out a fire, if they cannot get water pressure on the hydrant.
As far as using pool water for drinking water, it’s certainly possible, but as far as who has rights to it, that’s a great question. I don’t know.
January 12th, 2008 at 7:35 am
Another great letter from the AJC:
Put our water problems in perspective
I found the juxtaposition of the Jan. 5 front page stories interesting. The biggest story, illustrated by a girl swimming in a pool, bemoaned the fact that the drought may preclude filling swimming pools in Georgia this summer. Some of the people interviewed expressed unhappiness about having their social activities curtailed.
A smaller story was illustrated by a Kenyan woman attempting to scoop up some drinking water from a mud puddle. I don’t know whether the proximity of these headlines was coincidence or design, but I hope that the contrasting stories will help Georgians put our inconveniences in perspective and realize how fortunate we really are in the global view.
MARY BALDWIN, Marietta