How Safe are Public Pools?

As far as I know the photo hasn't been put out to "prove" anything -- it just accompanied an AP article about the story.

There had been some discussion here of the murkiness, I noted that the photo helped me visualize the situation. I had thought it was brown, obviously-dirty water -- this was more or less "normal" looking yet also seems to have very low visibility. From my experiences at the pool, it's unusual to be able to see so little of the person underwater. Reflections are one thing. Here's a random pic I found on the internet, similar angle as Marie Joseph + the little girl she's holding:

http://www.pressomatic.com/ccce/upload/Wando/Kids%20in%20Pool.jpg

You can see WAY more of their bodies under the water.

At any rate the opacity of the water is not really in question:

Quote:

An initial investigation showed the water in the pool was murky from the time the pool opened for the season last Saturday. Visibility tests conducted Wednesday revealed a diver couldn't be seen at a depth of 3 1/2 to 4 feet below the surface of the water.

I'm not sure how deep the one we go to is at the deep end, definitely at least 12 feet -- but kids are always losing their swimming goggles there, and people are able to spot them (resting on the bottom) when standing at the edge of the pool.

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@High Seas,

High Seas wrote:

Do you remember a movie named "Poltergeist" from back in the '80s? Most of it was funny rather than scary, but there was one scene I thought truly terrifying, the actress starring in the movie swimming in a pool at night and a dead body - looking like the spitting image of the posted picture - suddenly surfacing next to her. Couldn't help remembering it - possibly unfairly to the deceased. And you're right about cloudy water concealing anything for days.

I found a pic of that -- they were VERY dead bodies (as in, skeletal). Not spitting images at all.

http://abstract.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/599053/

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@High Seas,

High Seas wrote:

Cloudy water isn't necessarily dirty - the pH may be unbalanced, but that's not dangerous, or there may be suspended particulates depending on the source. Water in which a dead body has been lying for days is dangerously full of bacteria, though, and even if chlorine is added to a pool it won't kill all of them.

My comment had nothing to do with the cleanliness of the water. I just think it's very risky to run a public pool in which you can not see to the bottom of the pool (case in point). Visibility is the problem.

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@Linkat,

I have worked in a swimming pool complex and each day after we closed, we had to check all pools...there is no way you wouldnt see a body in a pool, even if the water was a little cloudy!!!

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@sube,

One thing that is obvious - they were not following appropriate safety rules.

We have a Y membership where there is a slide into the pool. They are so strict on use of the slide, it shocks me that this could happen. You have to be a certain height to use it, if not you need to complete a deep end swimming test; there is a life guard several feet from where you walk up the stairs to ensure you are tall enough/completed the test and to make sure only one at a time walks up the stairs (one person begins the slide before they allow another to even begin walking up the stairs); there is another lifeguard at the top that signals when you can go down.

These rules makes it impossible or at least nearly impossible to slide into some one else which is what appears to have happened.

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@sube,

http://www.toxel.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/deeppool2.jpg

This pool is almost 200 ft deep and still you can see the design at the very bottom of the deep end. It's filled with highly filtered water - no chlorine - and tested continuously for germs, bacteria, etc. Simply testing for toxic bacteria would have revealed the presence of a decomposing body in the MA pool.

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How Safe are Public Pools?

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