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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
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Safety Measures Could Prove Costly to Public Pool Owners

A new federal ruling, the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act, which calls for improved safety equipment to prevent people from being entrapped in the drains of public swimming pools and spas, went into effect in late December.

But the local agency in charge of pool inspections has no enforcement authority at present.

Meanwhile, the demand for drain covers that meet the new standard outpaces supply, and if pools have to be retrofitted with dual drains that feed into a T-shaped piping system to meet the compliance standard that could carry a hefty price tag.

The drain covers can run from $8 to $230, depending on size, and the cost of retrofitting might be as little as $1,000 or as much as $200,000 for an Olympic-sized pool, said Scott McKenna, CEO of Gardner Pool Plastering, a local licensed subcontractor. Yet, most pools built within the last 10 years already have dual drains, he added.

Along the California coast, swimmers are more apt to be pulled out to sea by the force of a riptide than entrapped at the bottom of a swimming pool by a drainage device. In fact, very few people have drowned that way in swimming pools. There may have been eight nationwide in the last decade, sources said.

The federal ruling was named after the granddaughter of former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, who drowned in an in-ground spa in 2002 as a result of suction-pump entrapment.

“In my opinion, it’s overreacting,” McKenna said.


Demand For Retrofits

Yet, the ruling has produced a windfall of business. With offices in Anaheim and Palm Springs he specializes in pool remodeling and has done 120 retrofits, including pools in apartment buildings, since January.

He anticipates the new law could bring in as much as $1 million in revenue this year, and while he expects a decline in overall sales this year compared to last, the numbers could have been worse without the ruling, he said.

A spot check of county lodging facilities by Namara Mercer, director of the San Diego County Hotel-Motel Association, showed that they already met the new standards or they were in the process of getting there. The association counts 213 hotels and associated businesses as members.

“There are a lot of different components in the requirements,” Mercer said. “But the biggest problem everyone had is there are not enough drain covers available.”

Liz Pozzebon, chief of the county Department of Environmental Health, Food and Housing division, which inspects public pools, said she’s heard that complaint as well. The health department, she added, has made owners and operators of the county’s 6,000 public pools aware of the new requirements and makes recommendations.

It can’t force changes at present. But it can close a public pool if an imminent health hazard is found.

A bill before the state Legislature, AB 1020, which was marked urgent, would impose a time frame for coming into compliance, and it states that violations would constitute a misdemeanor.

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