November 2012 - Parks & Recreation - 52

operations
Cleaner, Clearer, Cheaper
New technology improves water and air quality while lowering costs.

QUATICS FACILITIES that may have just come into compliance with
this spring's new ADA rules for access are now gearing up for 2013's
ﬁnalization of the Model Aquatic Health Code (MAHC), a set of guidelines being developed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC). Although as the name suggests, the MAHC is a model to be used in developing state regulations and hence is not immediately enforceable, its effects
are expected to ﬁlter down over the next several years as its recommendations
are incorporated in whole or in part into state regulations.
The good news is that installing new
technology that may help in meeting
those future regulations will bring
immediate beneﬁts in terms of bather
comfort and safety, as well as reducing
labor and energy costs. Some technologies that have been around for a few
years but are gaining traction in an era
of both budget tightening and an increased awareness of swimmer safety
and comfort include:
■ Ultraviolet (UV) sanitation systems;
■ Variable frequency drives for pool
pumps; and
■ Integrated systems that tie ﬁltration,
disinfection, and ventilation into one
system driven by automated water
quality monitoring technology.

Automated chemical control system

Ultraviolet Becomes More Visible
" Safety is always the ﬁrst motivator, "
says Joe Leary, aquatics director of the
Reston Community Center in Reston,
Virginia, which includes an indoor lap
pool and hot tub. " When I ﬁrst heard
about UV back in 2000, the big attraction was that it had a 99.97 percent kill
rate for all microbes and viruses and
bacteria, so my ﬁrst thought was the hot
tub...Then I found out about the chloramine destruct beneﬁts from UV. For
us, chloramine was a huge issue in our
year-round, indoor facility. I had a big
50

Parks & Recreation

UV sanitizer

Variable frequency drive

| NOVEMBER 2012 | WWW.NRPA.ORG

problem with chloramines and swimmers' lungs and eye irritation. That's
what motivated me to put UV on my
main pool ﬁrst. The result was instant
and dramatic-it was huge. "
Leary has not seen much reduction
in chemical use. Because a UV system
tends to break down chlorine along
with the harmful chlorine byproducts
and microbes, he needs to use the same
amount of chlorine even though he
is maintaining it at a lower level. Still,
the water in his pool is much cleaner
and bather satisfaction is much higher.
" I do strongly recommend UV, " Leary
says. " It's expensive, but pools are expensive. From an operator's standpoint,
peace of mind is priceless. "
In nearby Gaithersburg, Maryland,
UV was also speciﬁed for a large outdoor recreational pool under renovation. Jennifer Mogus, aquatics manager
for the City of Gaithersburg, says the
renovations involved converting a baby
pool into a splash pool with multiple
spray features, so UV came into consideration early on.
" We were lucky in that the budget
allowed us to get UV for both outdoor
pools, " Mogus says. " I think that the
investment is well worth it in the long
run in the fact that it is keeping your
bathers safe...If you make your case
clear to officials that are approving your
budget that this is a safety concern and
you've got your research to back it up,
they're on board. "
Mogus thinks UV proved its worth
as a secondary layer of protection during very high bather loads this summer
after the water park's grand reopening
in May 2012. And installation of the UV

DUFFIELD AQUATICS, INC.

BY ELIZ ABETH BE ARD

November 2012 - Parks & Recreation

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