Safety changes call for plunge in pools’ budgets

People have been tossing money in the water because the federal government said they had to.

That’s no exaggeration. Late last year, a law went into effect requiring all public swimming pools, kiddie pools and hot tubs to meet enhanced drain-safety standards. Pool operators who didn’t comply faced fines or forced closings. Recreation directors, swim coaches and others who oversee public pools scrambled to find cash and equipment necessary to make their facilities safer.

Not everyone has managed to do it. In the metro area, at least one public outdoor pool, in Rockdale County, is closed during the height of swim season because it would cost too much to make the pool safer. The state Department of Natural Resources, already strapped for cash, recently announced that it would not open five pools because the agency couldn’t afford it.

The law affects an array of pools — municipal and county facilities, pools at apartment complexes, subdivisions, swim clubs, and more. It’s not known, say officials, how many pools in the metro area are complying.

The story is the same at the national level, too. A spokesperson for the agency enforcing the changes estimates didn’t know how many pools are up to code.

Locally, people who operate pools said they dove into savings accounts to come up with cash — in some cases, spending thousands of dollars. They also waited for the parts to keep operations afloat.

None begrudges the costs — not out-loud, at least.

“We knew this was the way to go,” said Jim Cyrus, aquatics manager for the Gwinnett Parks & Recreation Department. The agency spent nearly $20,000 changing grates at nine facilities to lessen the chances that someone might get stuck. “We recognized the gravity of this.”

Tragedy, change

Virginia Graeme Baker jumped in an outdoor hot tub in June 2002. Its drain sucked the 7-year-old to the bottom, and didn’t let go. Two men got her to the surface, breaking the drain’s grate to free her, but were too late. The little girl, granddaughter of former Secretary of State James Baker III, drowned.

Hers became the face of tragedy, the name lobbyists repeated in calls for revised pool-safety standards. On Dec. 19, 2007, President George W. Bush signed into law the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act — “VGBA” to those who know it best. It took effect a year later.

The act requires pool and spa operators to replace aged drain covers with revised grates that lessen the pull of pumps pulling water into the bottom or sides of a pool. They are raised, increasing the distance between a swimmer and the pipe sucking water back to a facility’s pumping system. They bear a stamp certifying that they meet the new standards.

The law also stipulates that some pools may have to make other changes. Among them: lowering sump pumps in a pool’s floor to reduce suction, which could mean jackhammers and dive suits; and placing covers on skimmers, mesh outlets on the sides of pools that keep out hair and other objects from pumping systems. The revisions can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to thousands.

The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Council is charged with enforcing the law. A federal agency, the council has sounded the alarm on unsafe cribs, toaster ovens that don’t shut off and toys whose parts pop off when kids stick them in their mouths.

It’s authorized to assess fines exceeding $1 million against pool operators who refuse to comply, but the council says that’s not its goal.

“We are not trying to penalize people,” said council spokesperson Kathleen Reilly. “We are trying to get them on board.”

Congress gave the agency $2 million to spend on a public-information campaign about the changes. Lawmakers also created a $2 million fund to which states may apply for enforcement grants. Reilly said few states, including Georgia, have applied.

No one, she said, is certain how many pools, spas or hot tubs are complying. “You have to realize,” she said, “that there are hundreds of thousands of public pools in the country.”

Operators comply

A lifeguard’s whistle trilled. Caden and Gavin Ciarlo tried to look innocent, standing on the edge of the public pool at Snellville’s W.T. Briscoe Park. Danielle Ciarlo fixed her sons with a no-nonsense look.

“Stop running!” she commanded. They stopped — temporarily. Moments later, Caden, 5, and his 4-year-old brother were in the shallow end, a swirl of arms and legs.

A Snellville resident, Ciarlo said she didn’t know the city had spent $2,600 to outfit the pool, plus an adjacent kiddie splash site, with new drain covers.

“That’s nothing, compared to what could happen,” said Ciarlo, 26.

Cyndee Bonacci, Snellville’s director of parks and recreation, reached the same conclusion. “We went ahead and moved forward,” hiring a local pool-maintenance company to install new grates, she said. “We wanted to comply.”

The Cochise Riverview Club in Atlanta didn’t hesitate when it learned of the federal changes, said club member Jon Rubel. The nonprofit club spent $700 for new grate covers, no questions asked.

“These are my kids, my neighbors’ kids,” said Rubel, who’s overseen the pool for 12 years. “We don’t take chances.”

Officials in Rockdale County faced a costlier decision. They chose not to open a 75-year-old outdoor pool after learning that safety renovations could cost $100,000. Instead, Rockdale spent between $4,000 and $6,000 to retrofit an indoor pool.

“This [outdoor] pool is open three months a year,” said Chip McGinley, the county’s assistant director of parks and recreation. “It wasn’t feasible, plus … we didn’t have the money in the budget.”

DNR officials made a hard choice, too. They closed five pools this season rather than spend $244,000 to meet new standards.

“That’s money we simply do not have,” DNR spokesperson Kim Hatcher said.

Pools at High Falls, Victoria Bryant and Magnolia Springs state parks, and at George T. Bagby, Little Ocmulgee and Red Top Mountain lodges remain open.

‘Sky falling’

More than 300 pool experts and recreation officials met last fall at a Gwinnett hotel to learn about the new act. They spoke with employees of the Consumer Products Safety Council, as well as representatives of the companies that manufacture pool-safety equipment.

The mood, said Jimmy Gisi, executive director of the Georgia Recreation and Park Association, “was like Chicken Little. The sky was falling.”

But the sky remained in place. Gisi, who oversees a nonprofit agency composed of 203 public agencies, businesses and educational institutions, as well as more than 2,000 individual members, thinks people are more relaxed now.

“I think everybody was really, really scared when it came out,” he said.

Gisi said he knows of only three closed public pools whose operators say they cannot afford the changes: the Rockdale pool, plus facilities in Americus and Blakely, south of Atlanta.

Pool experts worried that the number would be greater than that. They fretted about not getting parts to cover all their repair orders. They worried that old stock would suddenly be worthless because it didn’t bear the required safety stamp.

In some cases, those fears proved well-founded, said Greg Randolph. He’s president and CEO of CSD Pools, a Sandy Springs company that has outfitted pools in four states. Operators did have to wait for replacements, and some ended up with stock rendered worthless by the changes, he said.

His company does the “full VGBA” — installing drain covers, appropriate skimmer covers, and moving piping to lessen the pull of suction drains, and more. Most jobs cost between $1,300 and $2,300, he said.

He questions whether some public pools are as safe as their operators say. He also wonders how well federal, state or local officials can enforce the act.

“No two counties are on the same page with this,” he said.

The act, nor the child for whom it is named, appear very well-known outside those who work around pools and spas.

Virginia Graeme Baker? Ericka Jefferson said she’d never heard the name. Hiking her skirt, she waded in the shallows of the kiddie pool at Briscoe Park. Her 4-year-old son, Kayden, hopped out of her reach, a frog evading its pursuer.

“Suction, that would worry me,” said Jefferson, 41 and a Snellville resident. “We can’t be too careful with our babies.”

A child jumped off the diving board. He looked like an otter, slim and fast, trailing silver bubbles. He passed over a drain outfitted with a new cover, immune to its pull.