NY to enact 'emergency' rules for spray parks
Lauren Stanforth
Staff writer
(August 26, 2005) - The state Health Department will write regulations by November that will govern water quality at all spray and splash parks, state Health Commissioner Dr. Antonia C. Novello said this afternoon in an interview with the Democrat and Chronicle.
The regulations are in response to the parasitic contamination at Seneca Lake State Park's Sprayground this summer that may have made more than 3,200 people ill -- one of the largest parasitic waterborne infections in the U.S. in at least a decade.
Spray" and "spalsh" parks are usually smaller than full-fledged "water" parks with slides, pools and other amusements, which are already heavily regulated by the state.
Novello said the Health Department is designating the new measures "emergency regulations," an action that will speed up the approval process. She said the new guidelines would be written by November, and would immediately go into effect.
They would later be submitted to an independent group of experts called the Public Health Council and offered up for public comment. They could then be amended.
"Parks and fairs are the meat of this state in the summer. I'm not going to do something that takes the people's trust away from them," Novello said.
The regulations would cover the operation and design of a spray facility and sanitary standards, and would require signage that reminds patrons to be hygienic.
The Sprayground, near Geneva, Ontario County, will remain closed for the rest of the year. The state Health Department and state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation are investigating how the parasite, called cryptosporidium, got into the facility's water storage tanks.
Novello said the department suspects an ill infant or toddler contaminated the water with fecal matter. The parasite is highly resistant to chlorine and can live in water for long periods of time.
LSTANFOR@DemocratandChronicle.com
