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Illinois Issues
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State of the State: Closing Hundreds of Pools in Illinois May Save Lives

Jamey Dunn headshot
mattpenning.com 2014
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WUIS/Illinois Issues

Hundreds of public swimming pools across the state were closed this fall when the Illinois Department of Public Health cracked down on pools that didn’t comply with state and federal regulations. 

According to the department about 85 percent of public pools comply with the 2007 Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act. However, about 500 pools were shut down October 1 for noncompliance. 

Melaney Arnold, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Public Health, says facilities have had plenty of warning about the new regulations, designed to prevent swimmers from becoming trapped underwater by filtration systems. “Starting in 2008, we sent a memo to all swimming facility licensees letting them know that it is our intention that they must comply with both state and federal laws.” She says that over time, the department sent six letters to every public facility in the state. The most recent reminder came in February 2010. During that period, Arnold says, the state also worked with facilities that were attempting to make changes. “As long as they were somewhere in the process in working to become compliant, we didn’t shut them down,” she says. “[We were giving] extensions time and time again over the years.”

However, Arnold says that to spur action from some facilities, the department had to draw a line in the sand and stop offering extensions. “We had to set that October 1 deadline. Pools were not coming into compliance.” She says some of the pools on the list may have made the needed changes but are waiting for the department to inspect their work. Because of that, Arnold says, the number of pools on the closure list will likely drop soon. 

Costs for upgrades can vary widely from a few hundred dollars for smaller changes to thousands of dollars for a filtration system overhaul. “Some may just need to have a different type of drain cover … [but] more often than not, construction is required,” Arnold says. Faced with the costs, some community pools may not reopen for their summer season next year.

Millstadt Village Treasurer Tracy Holmes told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “We were on the phone with [the Public Health Department] yesterday. …We have no idea if it will be $2,000 or $8,000.” Village officials are trying to figure out how to make the needed upgrades to their community pool, which has closed for the season. 

Some schools, YMCAs and community pools were left scrambling because they say they misunderstood the department’s directions. They now hope to get more time. Schools across the state are looking for new places to hold swim team practices and host meets. The Chicago suburban Daily Herald reports that the Taylor Family YMCA in Elgin has closed indefinitely because local officials misunderstood the timeline for the repairs. The downtown Springfield YMCA also had announced it would close the pool there for an indefinite amount of time, but the facility was later able to reach agreement with the state to remain open and upgrade its drain covers in December. 

Schools across the state are looking for new places to hold swim team practices and host meets.
Credit WUIS/Illinois Issues
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WUIS/Illinois Issues
Schools across the state are looking for new places to hold swim team practices and host meets.

Local school officials are crying foul over the agreement the state made with the Springfield YMCA. “We have been told every which way that no extensions were going to be granted,” Prentiss Lea, superintendent of the Libertyville and Vernon Hills high school district, told GateHouse News Service. “At the end of the day, who this is impacting most is kids.” 

However Arnold says no extensions were handed out before the deadline, and agreements will now be considered on a case-by-case basis. “They have the option of requesting a hearing and the possibility of entering into an agreement. So it’s kind of like a settlement.”

To qualify for an agreement, Arnold says, pools must already have a so-called corrective action plan to make their facility comply. “It can’t just be a plan that an engineer scribbles out quickly.” She says they must go through a lawyer and hash out a deal with the state that will likely include fines for missing the deadline. “It’s part of a legal contract. We’re not issuing an extension.”

The results of skipping out on the filtration changes can be harrowing. From a U.S. Consumer Product and Safety Commission warning about blocked drains: “Under normal conditions, pipes leading from a pool’s drain, or into the pool’s pumps, draw water from the pool, creating suction. If something blocks the pool drain leading into this pipe, the amount of suction will increase as the pump draws water past the obstruction. This increased suction can entrap parts of a person's body, causing the person to be held underwater. In wading pools, if a child sits on the drain outlet, the suction can cause disembowelment.” 

In 2002, 7-year-old Virginia Graeme Baker, granddaughter of former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, was trapped underwater by a hot tub drain. “The drain’s suction was so powerful that it took two adult males to pull her from the drain. They pulled so hard that the drain cover broke from the force. Graeme Baker died from drowning, but the real cause of her death was suction entrapment due to a faulty drain cover,” said CPSC safety information. 

According to the CPSC, which enforces the federal standards, between 1990 and 2004, 74 people were trapped by drains, resulting in 27 deaths. “The reported incidents involved people ranging in age from 22 months to 89 years. Most incidents were to older children (8 to 16 years of age); 77 percent of the victims were under the age of 15 years, with a median age of 9 years. In some of the cases, it appears that the child was playing with the open drain, including inserting a hand or foot into the pipe, and then became trapped by the increased suction and resulting tissue swelling,” a CPSC report stated. In the same time period, the commission documented 43 cases of swimmers getting their hair tangled in pool and spa drains, which caused 12 deaths. “The water flow into the drain sweeps the hair into and around the drain cover, and the hair becomes entangled in and around holes and protrusions on both sides of the cover. Entrapment occurs because of the tangling and not necessarily because of strong suction forces, although the suction forces initially draw the hair into the drain cover.” Eleven other cases of entrapment occurred during the period of the study, and they resulted in two deaths. The CPSC could not determine how those swimmers became trapped. 

While incidents of swimmers drowning or facing lifelong damage are thankfully rare, they can be horrifying, such as the two cases of disembowelment documented by the commission. “The scenario leading to disembowelment typically involves a young child, 2 to 6 years old, who sits on an uncovered drain. The incidents occur primarily in public wading pools where a floor drain cover is broken or missing. Young children have direct access to the bottom drain in wading pools because of the shallow water. Generally, drains are equipped with either flat grates or dome-shaped covers. The domed shape helps to prevent sealing of the pipe opening by the body. However, if the grate or cover is unfastened, broken or missing, the potential for an incident exists,” the report said. In both cases, the children survived, but the report described their injuries as “irreversible” and having a “devastating effect on the victim’s future health and development.” 

As a former lifeguard and swimming lessons instructor, I recognize that children need access to pools to learn proper water safety. I know that so many kids across Illinois count down the days until their community pool opens, and I have watched them line up outside on most sunny summer mornings well before my hometown pool opened its doors. I reminded them to walk when they could barely contain their excitement at the prospect of doing “cannonballs” into the water. I saw the pride that children in swim lessons felt after they went under water for the first time or executed their first dives. 

Community pools are important to kids, parents and seniors, who often use them as a way to stay active and exercise with little resistance on aging joints. So it is difficult to see so many of them closed to the public. The frustration of local officials who face the potential loss of a beloved community asset while trying to balance budgets in difficult times is understandable. However, the CPSC has been warning about the dangers of certain drain covers and systems for close to a decade. While it is an inopportune time for public entities such as schools and municipalities to find money in their budgets for such upgrades, the possibility of a tragic accident makes it a necessity. The potential human costs — as well as the astronomical legal costs that could come along with a wrongful death lawsuit — make keeping such facilities open without a clear plan for compliance with safety laws far too great a gamble.

Illinois Issues, November 2011

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