City says upcoming water park won't make you sick
February 14, 2006
Newstimeslive.com
Mark Langlois
DANBURY - As the city prepares to open a spray park in Rogers Park and Highland Park in May or June, officials are researching rules and construction plans that will keep children in the park safe.
The pools at Rogers and Highland were removed after the August 6, 2004, drowning of 2-year-old girl in Rogers Park.
City voters agreed to replace the pools with sprayscapes - playgrounds where water sprays out of colorful shapes like flowers, windmills, cannons and loops However, New York State created regulations to govern the parks after contaminated water caused thousands of illnesses in upstate New York. A similar problem in 1995 hurt 5,000 people in Georgia.
New York's Seneca Lake spray park closed on Aug. 15, 2005, after 4,000 people reported falling ill with diarrhea, vomiting and fever. In 1995, a similar outbreak occurred in Georgia sickening 5,500 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Danbury officials said they knew about both cases last year and are designing their park to avoid such problems. The Danbury park will not have holding tanks, so the water is fresh and not recycled when it sprays. The water comes directly from the city's municipal water supplies, which are treated before it reaches anyone's faucet.
