New rules follow spraypark outbreak
10/18/2005
R News
An outbreak at the Seneca Lake State Park, New York, sprayground last summer caused illnesses in nearly 4,000 people and spawned a class action lawsuit against New York State. A small group of state officials met Monday to discuss the matter further.
The stories say the group did not spend time talking about the lawsuit. Instead, they focused on what needs to be done so that an outbreak of cryptosporidium does not happen again. Assemblyman Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan), chair of the Health Committee, was quoted as saying, "Apparently ultraviolet light is enormously effective at killing the cryptosporidium microbe, where other things like filtration or chlorine are no where near as effective."
The stories note there are other ideas, but stopping the re-circulation of water at the park is not one of them because that would take up an enormous amount of water and still leave traces of the microbe behind.
The Health Department will likely have a draft of regulations finished by the end of November or early December. At that time, representatives will meet again and set up a firm timeline to implement the new rules.
Assemblyman Joe Morelle was quoted as saying, "Our hope is certainly that the spraypark will be reopened next year. We're obviously going to have to assure people that they can have every expectation that they're going to be safe when they visit these facilities and that's certainly our goal and we're committed to it."
