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Cape pool reopens, then closes because of pH levelWednesday, October 17, 2007Watch video about Central Municipal Pool Repairs The water is back in Central Municipal Pool, and a temporary motor and pump have been installed. Now parks and recreation workers face the task that stymies many pool owners -- balancing the pH level. Cape Girardeau parks and recreation director Dan Muser said the pool was opened Monday but closed before the day was out to adjust chemicals in the water. "Rather than trying to get it balanced with people using it, we've gone ahead and closed it," he said. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, chlorine's ability to kill germs fades as the pH level rises. When the pH level goes below 7.2 or above 7.8, swimmers' eyes and skin will feel irritated. Muser said the municipal pool's pH was above 8 on Monday. The pH problem is the latest in a string of frustrations since the pool's motor, installed in 1992, died Sept. 17. Workers removing the motor discovered cracks in the pump used to circulate the water. The city ordered a replacement pump, which is being manufactured in Pennsylvania and is not expected to be delivered until later this month or early November. A temporary motor arrived weeks ago, and the cracked pump was reinforced with a sealing compound. As workers attempted to install the equipment, the valve the motor and pump were being attached to broke. After replacing several valves, the motor and pump were hooked up. But moments after the machine starting operating, the pump shattered. Rather than waiting for the customized pump, city workers connected a free-standing external pump to the motor late last week. High school swim teams were invited to practice in the pool Monday. The water was chilly, but the chemical imbalance was unbearable for swimmers, Muser said. Muser said the city is contacting swim teams directly to keep them posted on the pool's availability. The city is also recording status messages on the pool phone, 335-4040, to let individual swimmers know the latest. Muser said the city pool uses the same chemicals backyard pools use, "except on a tremendously larger scale. It take longer to see the results ... that's the difference between 500 gallons and 500,000 gallons. It can be kind of aggravating, but this is pretty common." Central High School swim coach Dayna Powell said she's hoping her team gets back in the pool in time for the Nov. 1 end-of-season meet. If that's not possible, she said, she's looking at Poplar Bluff as an alternative. "The community's been really helpful. We've been able to use FitnessPlus and HealthPoint," she said. Pat Kuper, assistant swim coach for Notre Dame Regional High School, said her team's meet with Jackson, scheduled for today, has been moved to Perryville. 335-6611, extension 127 Comments  Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. If you feel that a comment is offensive, please Login or Create an account first, and then you will be able to flag a comment as objectionable. Please also note that those who post comments on semissourian.com may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.
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I'm glad that dang pump is fixed so everyone can stop griping about it. Time for them to move on to the next complaint.
To be totally accurate, ph levels were actually above 10. Also, it was the swim coaches who pulled the swimmers out of the water, not the city.
1) You would think it's a law that these levels should be checked before opening the pool, and 2) city officials would be factual with what happened.
Facts are that these levels are dangerous and kids were getting sick, which is why coaches pulled them from practice on Monday. It was swim coaches that looked at the levels on Tuesday and cancelled practices due to safety reasons before the city closed the pool.
Whitey I'm curious...what's the source of your information?
QT-PIE: if things were working OK, there wouldn't be complaints. Don't tell me you don't complain when you're unhappy with something? Do you just take it?
Yes, there will be complaints. As far as I know, the pump was just the cherry on top of the pie (no pun intended)--that pool has had an endless list of problems over the past few years, so once the pump is fixed I'm sure the other problems (which haven't been addressed yet) will come back into the discussion. The moldy plastic bubble that's ripping apart and has not been cleaned yet, the water heater that doesn't work when the weather is too cold, the nonexistant air circulation inside that structure, the ever-so-present possibility of chlorine poisoning because of all the problems above, etc etc etc.
With that said, I think Parks&Rec is doing a fine job with the limited resources at their disposal. Maybe Cape should get some clues from Perryville, Farmington, Poplar Bluff or Ste. Genevieve on how to fund/maintain projects like these.
That's why the Park Board is entertaining a park sales tax specific for projects AND providing dedicated funds for ongoing maintenance.
I might add that although the community has reached out to area HS teams, the gators, which is by far the largest of the area swim teams, has not been welcomed by these other community organizations. And that's probably due to the size of the team and the space limitations of the other facilities. But the Gators next best option has been Perryville.
whitey
Your facts seem to be contradictory. First, nowhere in the story does it say the city pulled swimmers from the water. It says the made the decision to close the pool. Second, The pool was closed on Monday afternoon by the City not Tuesday as you indicate. They never opened on Tuesday due to their decision to keep it closed until the chemicals could be straitened out. Third, if it was the coaches who checked the chemical levels and made the decision to pull the swimmers from the pool, why didn't they do this before they let the swimmers get in the pool in the first place. Sounds like the coaches may be more liable than anyone else if they are so knowledgable about how things should be and they let the swimmers get in the water in such dangerous circumstances. You need to check your facts more closely and watch who and what you accuse of making false statements or bad decisions. There is always another side of every story.
whitey
As far as your commments about why the Gators aren't being welcomed to the other facilities, again there are always two sides to every story. Maybe size is just the excuse they are giving them, and the real reason is something else. hmmm . . . . .
Fact #1: Mr.muser is quoted as saying, "Rather than try and get it balanced with people using it, we've gone ahead and closed it." My question is then why were all kinds of people using it with unbalanced chemicals in the first place?
Fact #2: The pool was not closed on Monday afternoon because the ladies did water aerobics on Monday evening, according to pool stafff. I agree it never opened on Tuesday.
Perhaps all coaches and parents should check these levels everytime the pool is used. But I would think that legally it would be staff/management responsibility to check levels on a regular basis to ensure the safety of swimmers. I know the city has made every effort to get the kids in the water in a timely fashion, and it was their goal to have them in the water on Monday. But common sense says if the water is not safe, it is not safe. My facts are straight. I believe the city wanted the kids to swim on Monday, but it was irresponsible to open the pool knowing what the levels were.
whitey
WOW
If you are saying that your Fact #1 in your last comment is the same as your previous comment alledging that the city stated that they pulled the swimmers from the water, then thank you for proving my point. You do seem to be factually challenged even with your own facts.
You seem to think you know a lot of the information directly. Could it be that you are one of the highly praised coaches that you mention in your first statement or at least speaking on the behalf of one of them? From the looks of your second statement about the Gator swim team, I think I can guess which one you are or at least which one is providing you with your information.
What an ego.
Justified
You need to chill out man. Whitey makes some good points. Like O'Reilly, somebody's got to be watching out for the folks. Kids should not be exposed to bad chemicals. Hats off to Coach Dana for pulling those kids out of the water. The city should have known man, if they didn't they certainly should have.
A note for the Parks and Recreation Department: go to poolsolutions.com and maybe even hire an expert, not difficult.
Chas111
I'm surprised the city opened the pool with such an elevated ph level. They obviously knew this before opeing the pool and decided to open under unsafe conditions. This is clearly another poor management decision by the parks and recreation department.
Why should we approve another tax increase for expansion of park services when they clearly mismanage current facilities?
That's the point I'm getting at. You are all basing your opinions on erroneous facts. It wasn't as bad as you are being led to believe. Get the facts before you jump to conclusions.
Why was the pool opened if the ph level was not in the acceptable range Monday morning? The ph is very slow to change in large pools and it would not have drastically changed from Monday morning to Monday afternoon.
It's clearly poor management of the pool by the parks and recreation department. I am sure Mr Muser was given the ph and chlorine status before the pool was opened and as we see he opted to open under unsafe conditions. VERY POOR MANAGEMENT!!!!
I just spoke to Dayna Powell.
She said the her team finished Monday's practice. She said she did not pull her swimmers out of the water, that "we were going pretty hard because it was our first day back in the pool."
Powell also said she'd heard from others the pH was high but did not test the water herself.
"I could tell something was not right because the water tasted bad. I could tell by what they (the swimmers) were doing with their mouths that something was up," she said.
Once again match1, what you have just provided is misinformation. You base your opinion on assumptions from what you read here or heard from some other misinformed person instead of getting the real facts. Let's go back to the origianl story. The pH level was really a little more than 8. While pH levels such as this may cause some irritation, it is very far from health threatening or dangerous by any stretch of the imagination. This misinformation campaign can continue as long as you all want, but it still doesn't change the true facts which no one seems to be interested in. Just look at Peg's comments concerning Coach Powell. She says she didn't pull her swimmers out of the water or test the water herself and yet whitey11 states in an earlier comment that it was the coaches that pulled the swimmers from the water and did the testing. Point proven!
What's it going to take to get you swim clubbers from lambasting the City when they have gone above and beyond just to accomodate you bunch of spoiled cry babies. Give them a break and be thankful for what is being attempted on your behalf, because it certainly isn't for the rest of our behalf.
Justified,
You can complain all you want about my comments but the facts don't change. The parks and recreation board made a very poor safety judgement call on opening the pool Monday and then had to close down soon after.
The parks and recreation department poorly manages current facilities and should not be asking for a tax increase. Throwing more money at poorly managed situations will not make it better.
FYI,,,I'm certainly not a member of the swim team.
Justified, when you are backed into a corner with no leg to stand on, you find you can only resort toname calling.
Facts are the facts. Admittedly ph levels were knowingly high, and pool staff allowed kids as young as 4 to be unsafely exposed to these toxic chemicals. I know the city wanted to get the kids in the water and I know they worked hard for several weeks to make it happen.
And I would never have said a thing in the first place had the first article contained accurate information. It was a dangerous mistake and the city is lucky to only be lamblasted on a website blog.
What I have to stand on is the truth which can't be said by any of you who keep referring to this situation as dangerous or a safety concern. If the real issue is the safety of the kids, they are more likely to drown or hit their heads on something than they are to be injured from the cehmical levels that were present in the pool on Monday.
Justified,
You are clearly on the wrong side of the facts regarding the pool opening issue. The pool opened under unsafe conditions and had to close shortly after because of unsafe conditions.
Poor judgement was made in opening the pool by the park department before the chemical levels had stabilized.
Each time you post you lose credibility.
If I have to be the only ne who believes in the truth and that causes me to loose credibility with you, then I am glad to do so. There has not been even 1 fact that says that the City knew that the pH level was too high before they opened. If you know anything about how pH can work, it can fluctuate fairly quickly. I know for a fact that people used the pool Monday morning and there were no complaints about anything. The pH level obviously jumped up later in the day about the time the swim teams began to use it. Anyone who keeps stating that it was a dangerous situation and that the city made a poor decision has no credibility and is completely ignoring the facts.
The facts remain that the city bent over backwards to accomodate people who now are intent to run them down with no appreciation of the attempt that was made just for them and no one else. The fact also remains that the chemical situation at the pool was never dangerous or health threatening even with an elevated pH level because pH levels of 8, 9 or even 10 do not pose a serious health threat to anyone. I do acknowledge that you can experience uncomfortable irritations at these levels, but that is far different than being dangerous. Do some research on this before you reply with some facts that contradict what I am saying.
Justified,
The pH level of a 500,000 properly maintained swimming pool would not bounce up and down from morning to afternoon like a super ball bouncing. The pH was high in the morning when the pool opened as well as the afternoon when the pool was closed.
Just another example of poor facilities magagement by the park and recreation department / city. Ultimately they are one in the same.
You don't open an unsafe pool to the public.
This incident should be reported to the state for investigation.
The pH level in this size pool can and does fluctuate on a daily basis. If you would at least once do some research before spouting your erroneous opinion you would see that it not only is possible, but happens to all pools at one time or another.
By the way, please do call the state and whoever else you can think of, that way I won't be the only one laughing at you.