Not our fault

Really. We tried to get a hold of Newton Tab writer Dan Black before the publication of the Tab's pool poop expose.

Had we, we would have tried to debunk the myth that commonwealth law requires a 24-hour closure for biological contamination. In fact, the Mass Department of Health guidelines on Fecal, Vomit and Blood Incidents in Swimming Pools (sorry, PDF) recommends closing for as little as 30 minutes for "formed stool." From the same document:

Most organisms found in properly chlorinated pool water, including E.coli 0157:H7, are killed very quickly. In fact, usually only a few seconds of disinfection are needed to kill 99.9% of these organisms. Those organisms that are more resistant to disinfection, such as cryptosporidia, are typically introduced into pool water via very watery diarrhea. This is seldom noticed or reported. Thus, solid stool is unlikely to contain cryptosporidia.

And we would have tried to shift the focus from the kiddies. According to JCC Aquatics Director Russ Poulin, it's likely thatthe biology that caused many (most?) pool closings escaped from adults, not toddlers.

Happily, most three-year-olds don't read the Tab; they are unlikely to know that they've been scapegoated.

We are not alone, part II

From Jay:

It is about time! I ran a pool for years and we had a strict policy that 1st offense was a 3 day exclusion for young child and their parents. Second offense loss of membership unless you appeared before the pool manger and explained how you were going to control your children. Third offense was out, no appeal.

This may seem like a draconian policy but we almost never had to enforce it or find the problem child. Just the existence of the policy made the problem magically go away as parents took their children on bathroom breaks regularly rather than risk expulsion. Clearly there are always a few problems but the JCC is ridiculous. The head life guard I spoke to recently was dismissive when I brought this issue to his attention and would not consider a solution. Clearly that is the difference between a paying member and a paid employee ( not to mention the issue of age-ism).

I have been totally frustrated because my e-mails to the JCC never receive a response. As I said, I have run a YMCA and an AAU pool and would never have treated members like this.

Dismissive response from on-deck staff? Didn't get a response back to an e-mail? We're so surprised to hear that.

We are not alone, part I

From Aaron Nelson:

The outdoor pool has become a joke - which is the reason I finally opted out of membership after years of frustration. Either the staff is unwilling or unable to enforce a reasonable contamination prevention policy or the offending members are simply inconsiderate of the larger community. Or both. The net effect is the membership is repeatedly deprived of access during the hottest days of the summer.

Since nothing you've been thus far doing has truly been effective, I suggest the following steps should be tried:

1. the JCC should rebate a portion of the seasonal membership fee for each day the pool is closed due to a preventable event, or

2. Repeat offending members should be assessed a financial penalty - 3 strikes and you're out for the season. I realize the JCC's loss of my membership is insignificant. But I'm willing to bet that there are a lot of members who have the same frustrations with the group punishment which has been the effective result of these closings.

One reasonable enforcement measure we've heard bandied about: check diapers. We have an 18-month-old. While her plastic pants and swimmie diaper are generally visible poking out, we would not at all be offended if, even on an hourly basis, a lifeguard gave her little tuchis a pat or asked us to confirm that she's properly swaddled.

Pack your bags

Not only has management decided to render our pool membership meaningless every hour at quarter-to, they have effectively made the day another fifteen minutes shorter.

Beginning an hour before the pool closes, come the threatening warnings. Get off the pool deck by seven sharp or you and your kids will be locked in. (We exaggerate not. "The door will be closed and locked in one hour/30 minutes/15 minutes.") If you are one of the few members who have small kids, that means that you have to get out of the pool with enough time to get them showered, dressed, and packed up. With our 4- and 1-year-old, that works out to be about 15 minutes.

What is up with that?

A reasonable pool closing time would leave a comfortable period between the posted closing time and the point at which you become an overnight guest of the JCC. Either give people a few minutes to get out, or close the pool earlier. Of course, the latter route would mean that management would have to acknowledge that the hours are yet again shorter than last year's.

Maybe as an interim step, the JCC might change the script into something a little less hectoring and threatening. ("Daddy, are they really going to lock us in if we don't get out?")

Sure bet

The pool management responded to the spate of poop-cidents with a new, more rigid, less family-friendly policy: clear the pool(s) every hour, regardless of conditions. Adults, you're out every other hour. And, no kiddie pool either.

We're confident that this reduces the risk of biological contamination by 25%. Stands to reason. If no one is in the pool a quarter of the time, no chance of anyone pooping in it. We have no idea why management did not pursue this policy to its logical conclusion. If you don't let any kids in, ever, there's no chance of an accident in the pool.

We can all just stand around and enjoy the visual pleasures of the pool as an interesting body of water. This will also cut down on lifeguard expense. (We recommend that the pool remain full of water, so at least one lifeguard per pool is necessary to keep out the poop vessels known as our children.)

Really, there is no logic to the policy that closing the pool for 15 minutes reduces the risk in the other 45 minutes. Kids don't poop on demand during the last quarter of the hour. They go when they have to go. And if diarrhea is the problem, there's absolutely no way to manage it. The runs know no schedule.

Bait and Switch

Anybody else bothered by the fact that the JCC solicited summer membership payments over the winter (we paid in January), but waited until June to publish the pool hours, which are an hour shorter than last year?

Oh, poop

We just received an e-mail from a JCC staffer with an annotated version of the Center for Disease Prevention's (CDC) Six "PLEAs" For Healthy Swimming: Protection Against Recreational Water Illnesses (RWIs). Typically cautious CDC stuff.

Oddly, the e-mail doesn't cite or link to the CDC's Fecal Accident Response Recommendations for Aquatics Staff. (Admirably, the sub-title is less clinical: What do you do when you find poop in the pool?) The page has a section on recommended closure time for formed and non-formed fecal events (turds and diarrhea). In both cases the response is the same: you jack the chlorine level up for a while. In the event of a solid BM, a while is up to 45 minutes. For diarrhea, up to 6.7 days (but with a reasonable chlorine shock up to 16 hours).

What does this tell us? Either the JCC staff is seriously overreacting to solid stool events (by a factor of 10) or all the JCC biological contamination events are diarrhea.

If they've been overreacting, they ought to stop. If the CDC says 45 minutes is enough, 24 hours is excessive.

If all the contamination has been diarrhea, all the Adult Swim/Bathroom Breaks in the world aren't going to prevent the problem. Speaking from experience, diarrhea doesn't wait until quarter of the hour and it isn't going to be precipitated by having Johnny sit on the potty once an hour.

It isn't all bad

Given the motivation for the blog and the inevitably critical tone we'll take here, it might be good to start with something positive. Here goes.

We love the huge sun-shade thingies.

The new tables and chairs fill an urgent need and are very nice quality.

That felt good. Maybe we'll do it again.

What's this all about?

My family has had an outdoor pool membership for several years. While we enjoy the pool, there are a number of troubling management issues that ought to be addressed. Number one on our bill of particulars is the insane adult-swim policy and its rigid enforcement.

In this blog, we intend to highlight what we feel are the obvious shortcomings in the management of the JCC outdoor pool and suggest changes. By doing so, we hope to gauge how many members share our views and, if we're not the only family with issues, present a case to convince management to change.

If you want to agree, disagree, or add comments, please e-mail Sean at sean@vermonster.com.