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Pool Problems

Started by WilliamS1 • 21 replies • 2316 views

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WilliamS1 (South Carolina)
Posts: 113
Posted:
We have a small town-home community of just over 100 units. We have a nice pool but within the last week, we have had two instances where someone has defecated in the pool. Many of the neighbors have suspicions but its a little hard to pin down. Any suggestions?

RobertG (Arizona)
Posts: 505
Posted:
I would suggest you get to the bottom of this (couldn't resit!).

Is it possible it is infant poop or is it adult?
PaulM (Pennsylvania)
Posts: 1,347
Posted:
RobertG: very cute...and very astute...
LindaC3 (Florida)
Posts: 526
Posted:
Make sure that it is not animal feces....Our community pool abuts a nature preserve and we have on occasion seen the racoons and what not having their own private pool party w/o so much as invite to any of us "humans" LindaC
JoeW1 (New York)
Posts: 728
Posted:
WilliamS1 - Post a sign saying NO FLOATIES IN THE POOL!! Sorry, couldn't resist, my bad.
LindaC3 (Florida)
Posts: 526
Posted:
Joe--- Thanks for the afternoon giggle......Doesn't the movie Caddyshack now flash thru your mind.......LindaC
DwightT (Idaho)
Posts: 664
Posted:
You all may find this situation cute and funny, but another HOA in my area recently had their pool shut down because several children in the neighborhood came down with cholera after swimming in the pool. The pool had apparently not been properly treated after a couple of "floater" incidents, leading to the outbreak. It really isn't all that funny to have to shut down the pool on a hot day because some mother couldn't be bothered to outfit her child with a swim diaper.

We had a couple of incidents last year, and we've already had one this year. Our pool rules do require swim diapers for children who have not been toilet trained, but obviously not everyone follows the rules. If we do identify the family involved, we will disable their pool access, but first we have to be able to identify who it is. Any reasonable suggestions?
LindaC3 (Florida)
Posts: 526
Posted:
Dwight-- I fully understand the seriousness of this......We have a rather large pool at our HOA and in the summer months we stress amongst the parents that if they want to be able to have their kids have full use of the pool PLEASE cooperate with the pool rules and keep the small diapered babies out of the large pool....We have a kiddie pool for them and it has kept these types if accidents down....HOWEVER....there are ACCIDENTS and we have someone on staff who monitors the pool at least 3 times a day just in case and we are always monitoring our chemical levels... We have never disabled someones pool access IF they had an accident at the pool,but would if we found it was done intentionally, say by some kids who are bored and mischievious......Short of having a camera montitoring the pool area it would be nearly impossible to identify the culprits.... I believe the worst incident we had at pool area was last summer when some juveniles under age trashed the pool with broken beer bottles and toilet paper and by throwing all the furniture in the pool...We were lucky in that a few of girls went to the pool area early in the morning and found them all passed out at the pool WITH beer bottles in their hands.....But of course according to their parents their kids WOULD NEVER do anything like that...Thank God for cellphone cameras...We took pictures of them passed out BEFORE we woke them up and called management...Needless to say..they WILL NEVER EVER have access to the pool again ...............Best of luck with your situation....LindaC
MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836
Posted:
Been there, done that, got the wet t-shirt! TWICE in 2 weeks, there was a "floatie" found in our pool. Guess who had to remove it? The President of course!!! (ME!). I had to scoop it out and then immediately shut the pool down. The pool had to be locked up and shocked. It takes about 24 hours for the shocking to be complete. It's important to shock the pool after any suspected contamination such as this. Extreme measures even require draining the pool completely.

The police should be called in and a report made. If anything, once you find the culprit, you may be able to pursue charges of vandalism plus try to get back the damages costs. That could include the costs of shutting down the pool and cost of chemicals for treatment.

My best solution to this issue. I let EVERYONE know the issue and the costs associated with it. I posted a sign at the Pool entrances announcing that a feces had been found in the pool and the pool is shut down for treatment. Any information on the person responsible should be forwarded to a board member or police. I didn't just push this issue under the rug and only discuss it at meetings. This is a serious health risk and ALL the homeowner's were responsible for paying for it.

We also had a strict rule about using NO diapers. The babies had to wear the "swimmies" diapers if they were to enter the pool. We also had bathroom close to the pool area. However, they had a combination lock on them. If you didn't know the combo to get into the pool area then you didn't know it to get into the bathroom. That meant someone in the HOA should take notice if there was a non-member present and ask questions.

You name it, I've been through it with a swimming pool. I've had the pump blow-up twice during the weekend of the Fourth of July, someone exposing themselves, naked person jumping in, I've been tossed into the pool by a naked person, expensive leaks, sand replacement, and multitudes of pool maintenance items. Funny thing is that I NEVER owned a pool before. Now I don't think I will ever desire to own one.
Former HOA President
BradP (Kansas)
Posts: 2,640
Posted:
Actually if you have maintained correct chlorine levels you probably don't need to shock, although it isn't a bad thing to do. People don't realize that swimming pools are nasty in that our bodies excret nasty things into it. You would be amazed at how much sweat a person excrets in a pool, the composition of it is not that far off from urine.

With that said about all you can do without spending too much money is increase vigilance, ask pool attendants or residents to keep an eye out. Increase your locks on gates when pool is not in use. Educate owners on swimmer diapers for kids, etc. You can always put up a camera, honestly a single camera which depending on the size of your pool is not that expensive.

As others have said it is a serious issue and can cause health issues if not properly dealt with.
MicheleD (Kentucky)
Posts: 4,491
Posted:
^^^^ Brad: ^^^^

that is EXACTLY why I NEVER use public swimming facilities.

I'm such a Felix Unger....or for the more current Pop Culture reference, Monk...
MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836
Posted:
I forgot to add that recently I got ill from a contaminated public pool. It wasn't E-coli. Believe me, it felt much worse! What I got was a parasite called "Crypto". It is NOT killed by Chlorine! It can live for a few hours or days in a pool. Depends on the filteration system if it's setup to catch it. What's even more scary is that it can happen in your every day water supply if it's NOT equiped to filter it out. You have to purchase special filters that are designed to filter it out.

If someone has "Crypto" they can pass it on in the swimming pool without knowing it until it's too late. I wasn't allowed to go swimming for over 2 weeks after I was treated. A person can still catch it even after treatment. It's transferable through feces.

You don't run a fever with "Crypto". That's the good news. The bad news is that you have the WORST non-stop stomach cramps, diahrea, and vomitting in your life. You can't even take Pepto-Bismal or any anti-diarheal while you have it. It lasts longer if you do. I did get over the vomitting after about 8 hours. However, the stomach cramps and diarhea don't stop for days. I was soo sick that I couldn't even drive myself to the hospital or doctor.

So, you may want to review how well your filtration and chemicals are maintained. I've heard of other methods besides using chemicals to treat pools. There is something along the lines of using "salt-water". It's more expensive but good for those who are concerned or allergic to strong chemicals.
Former HOA President
GloriaM (North Carolina)
Posts: 829
Posted:
Melissa:

Hope you are feeling much better.
MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836
Posted:
Thank you Gloria! I do feel much better. Feel I should warn people about this now that I've been exposed. What was more miserable still was that I had gone swimming to celebrate my birthday! I had leftover Red Velvet cake and couldn't eat it. HOMEMADE FROM SCRATCH RED VELVET CAKE!!! Can you feel my pain?
Former HOA President
LindaC3 (Florida)
Posts: 526
Posted:
Melissa-- i feel your pain about the cake being a bake from scratch baker..glad to hear that you are feeling better.....found this link that may be of interest to the group...........
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyswimming

LindaC
BradP (Kansas)
Posts: 2,640
Posted:
I think it is important that all HOA's either hire a pool company or have someone that is a certified pool operator to take care of your pools. You open yourself up to severe liability if a layperson is responsible for it. Certified pool operators (CPO's) have to go through classes and pass tests. When you talk about liability this is an important step imo.
LindaC3 (Florida)
Posts: 526
Posted:
BradP-- I do believe that in Florida all communities that have pools open to the public are required to have a CPO on staff for monitoring of the pool and its facilities.... We are tested monthly ( surprise) visits , never scheduled and have recieved numerous accolades from our health dept on the excellent quality of our water and the surrounding bath house/ cabana rooms ... we take great pride in or pool and like I mentioned earlier about some vandalism from teenagers drinking and breaking beer bottles our members here also take pride in the pool ........Linda C
MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836
Posted:
A few pool companies offer pool care classes. Some may be "free" and others costs a small fee. ($100 +/-). Anyone can take the class that is interested. I believe you can get a certificate afterward. It's good even if you have a private pool as well.

Our county used to require periodic checks of any public pool. However, due to budget cuts, they now do it on a complaint basis more or less. They can still come in and do surprise spot checks. Everyone fears those around here and try to keep their pools maintained well. The fines, shutting the pool down, or possibly forced to drain and refill the pool is enough to keep anyone in line. It's not cheap.

We do have a pool person that comes in to treat the pool. They check it everyday in the summer. Luckily, our pool person was pretty good. There were times that they couldn't be reached where I had to learn to "step-in". Although I am no pool expert, I did learn. There were always enough emergencies that atleast one back up person should be trained amongst the residents. We had a few of them. I even offered to pay for any resident interested to attend the local pool classes so we wouldn't be stuck. A consideration your HOA may consider.
Former HOA President
JM2 (Oregon)
Posts: 439
Posted:
Hi William:

One possible thing to think about - purchase of a fake video camera or two, plus signs that the pool area is monitored. Or, real video cameras? If the problem is at night, some motion-sensor lights might help as well.

J. Patrick Moore, CMCA
DwightT (Idaho)
Posts: 664
Posted:
We just installed a new access control system and video monitoring system at our pool. When we were first looking into our options, we considered installing fake cameras. Everybody from the police to the lawyers to our insurance agent told us NOT to do that. If somebody got hurt at the pool and wanted to review the tapes, there could be a lot of trouble when the word got out that the cameras didn't really do anything.

We had the new system installed because of problems over the past couple of years with vandalism and rowdy teenagers making the pool an unpleasant place for families. Since the new system has been installed our problems have gone way down.

Shortly before the pool opened for the season we had some teenagers climb the fence to get into the pool. They didn't really cause any damage, but it did cause some confusion with homeowners who saw them in the pool and thought that the pool was open for use. Since we had the teens on video, we printed out a photo of them climbing the fence and posted it at the pool area along with a warning that any furthur violations would result in their pool privileges being revoked. The main purpose of posting the photos was to demonstrate that the cameras were real and stunts like that would be recorded.

The videos probably won't really help catch the diaper brigade in the act, but they have been a big help in keeping rowdy behavior and vandalism under control.
SandraC2 (Pennsylvania)
Posts: 4
Posted:

I'm giving up swimming in pools including the one in our HOA and will swim only in the rivers! YUCK! And I thought hot tubs were nasty!
BradP (Kansas)
Posts: 2,640
Posted:
Sandra:

I would stay away from hot tubs, they are very gross unless maintained properly, that requires a lot of work.

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