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Dirty water, chemical imbalances and bad record keeping are just a few of the problems found by public health inspectors at pools here in the Miami Valley.
Inspectors from Public Health, Dayton and Montgomery County, check all public pools and private pools at condos and apartment complexes. They conduct an inspection before the pool opens for the summer and then approximately every two weeks throughout the summer.
"We did about 4200 pool inspections in 2013," said Jennifer Wentzel, Public Health, Dayton and Montgomery County.
We went along with Wentzel as she inspected the pool at West Carrollton's Wilson Park.
"We're looking to make sure the walls look intact," said Wentzel, "We're looking for trip hazards, making sure everything is smooth."
She checked for all the required danger signs, made sure pool ladders were secure and that all the supplies were properly stored. Wentzel said the biggest problems are typically inside the pool.
"Water quality is important. We're here to protect the swimmers," said Wentzel, who checks the chlorine and the P-H level, the acidity of the water. "Some of the waterborne illnesses associated with swimming pools are Cryptosporidium, Shigella, and E Coli. A lot of times, they cause severe diarrhea and dehydration."
The levels were all normal at the Wilson Park pool so the verdict was a good one the day of this inspection. However, inspections have found problems at other local pools this summer. The chlorine level was abnormal at the Alpine Apartments in Kettering and the pool water was so cloudy, the inspector wrote," The main drain wasn't visible." We called the complex and a manager told us that the pool was drained after pipes froze last winter and they plan to reopen the pool very soon.
The manager at Englewood's Clarion Inn told us that they fixed their violations within several minutes of the last inspection. The safety release system has been shut off and they had to repair a flow meter.
Inspectors said the pool at Comfort Suites in Riverside had only half of the chlorine required. The records they should be taking every four hours were, " unreadable, unorganized and inconsistent."
An employee of the hotel told us that the chemical levels were fixed and they are now keeping better records.
The P-H level was too low at Heritage Knoll Apartments in Kettering and so was the water level. An office employee told by phone, "The pool is safe now."
"I'm sure there are plenty of places that I wouldn't put my kids in," said Tina Brown of Franklin. Brown was watching her children swim at the Wilson Park pool in West Carrollton the day of the last inspection.
"Everything seems clean here and that's important," said Brown, who is happy that inspectors are keeping watch over our pools.