November 2009 - Parks & Recreation - 40

Virginia Graeme
Baker Act Revealed

he Virginia Graeme Baker Act is a law
passed by Congress in December 2007 in re-

sponse to entrapment deaths at pools and spas across
the United States. Named for the granddaughter of
Secretary of State James Baker who drowned from
entrapment, the federal statute is aimed at preventing
the strong suction that can occur around the drains
of aquatic facilities.
The law went into effect on December 19, 2008,
and requires all public pools and spas to be retrofitted
with drain covers that meet the ASME/ANSI A112.19.8-
2007 standard. These drains are less likely to entangle
swimmers' hair or other parts of the body. In addition,
if the pool or spa has a single main drain, the facility
must be fitted with a safety vacuum release system,
a suction-limiting vent system, an automatic pump
shut-off system, or a type of drain disablement system.
To view a list of drains that have been approved
by the CPSC, visit www.cpsc.gov/businfo/vgb/
draincman.html

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November 2009

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2007, " Schneider explains. " New drain covers need to
be changed every few years anyway-if [pool managers] aren't changing to the new compliant covers, they
are breaking the law, period. "
The law states that facilities needed to be updated
to meet the VGBA requirements before December
2008, or before the start of the summer if the pool is
seasonal. Tom Dunning, lead pool operator for Seattle
Parks and Recreation, says his team started updating
in February 2008 to get all of the city's pools in compliance by deadline. However, with 11 different pools
to update, his agency won't be fully compliant until the
middle of November of this year. " We took a break in
the summer, but on average each pool was closed for
about three weeks to do the repair, " Dunning says.
In addition, Seattle's pools were mostly multiple
drain pools, which meant they only needed to replace
drain covers and some sump pumps. The city also has
its own maintenance department, so much of the work
could be done in-house. He surmises that if a city or
county had to correct single drain issues at the pools as
well, it would take a lot longer to come into compliance.
" Every project like this has unforeseen problems, "
Dunning explains. " One of our pools sits right next to
a lake and was built in 1951. For this particular pool,
we had to change the sumps out as well. When we cut
into the pool shell which was six to seven feet below
lake level, lake water just came rushing in. It became
a serious repair. " Dunning estimates that the cost to
comply with VGBA for all of Seattle was $400,000-
money allocated to the compliance project came from
the mayor's office.
In Austin, Texas, the city's 50 pools were in compliance by May of this year. Tom Nelson, aquatics division
manager, says that it took all winter to finish switching to the new, compliant drains. " We just designated
staff to do it, " he says. " We are lucky that most of our
pools are closed in the winter. " Nelson also explains
that most of the pools just needed new drain covers that
were replaced during regular scheduled maintenance.
His estimated costs for the repairs were $30,000, which
came from the capital improvements project fund.
Though cities like Seattle and Austin are meeting
the requirements of VGBA, they are certainly not the
norm. In an MSNBC special report that aired in July,
experts surmised that only 10 percent of Los Angeles
County pools were in compliance. Reports also estimate that out of 6,000 pools in Orange County, California, thousands are non-compliant.

November 2009 - Parks & Recreation

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