Checks in works for risky fountains
KIDS' OUTBREAK PUTS SITES ON LIST FOR MONITORING
By Joyce Chen
Mercury News
Santa Clara County health officials said Thursday that they have identified all the interactive fountains in the county for the first time and will take steps to monitor their water to prevent disease outbreaks.
The action came after seven children were infected by a microscopic parasite while playing in a popular fountain at Plaza de Cesar Chavez in downtown San Jose. Tests on the water found Cryptosporidium, which causes nausea, diarrhea and other gastrointestinal distress.
City officials immediately shut off the fountain and closed another, in McEnery Park, as a precautionary measure.
Both work by running the same water through the jets over and over, increasing the chance that Cryptosporidium and other contaminants from human and animal feces will build up. City and county officials will meet next week to review filtration systems that would remove the parasite and other dangerous microbes, according to Ed Bautista, a spokesman for the city parks and recreation department.
Unlike traditional fountains, interactive fountains are designed for water play. The children were apparently infected while playing in the downtown fountain between July 22 and Aug. 21.
The county has never applied the same scrutiny to fountains as it does to public pools, hot tubs, spas and water parks, which are regularly monitored to make sure they're properly chlorinated.
``Up until this incident, we were not considering these fountains as swimming pools'' and evaluating them accordingly, said Richard Fuchs, director of the consumer protection division in the Santa Clara County department of environmental health. ``But in all likelihood, we'll be doing that in the future.''
Although no new cases of cryptosporidiosis have occurred, health officials across the Bay Area acknowledged the need for oversight.
Fuchs said his staff just finished compiling a list of every interactive fountain in the county. The next step would be contacting cities and setting ``some kind of monitoring schedule,'' he said.
The county list was not available Thursday. Bautista said San Jose has seven interactive fountains; the five that remain open work by continually bringing in fresh water rather than recirculating it.
``If water is coming in and it just drains out, then you're not going to be putting yourself at risk, because it's new water every time,'' said Dr. Marty Fenstersheib, the Santa Clara County public health officer.
The best way to prevent ``crypto'' outbreaks is to filter the parasites out of the water, said Michelle Kirian, coordinator of the Cryptosporidiosis Surveillance Project, which monitors cases in Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco, Alameda and Tuolumne counties. The parasites can live for days even in a properly chlorinated pool.
She said that while rashes of cryptosporidiosis have occurred in the past -- most famously in greater Milwaukee, where 403,000 people were infected in 1993 -- the Bay Area hasn't experienced an outbreak since 2003. ``It's not common to see Cryptosporidium infection associated with recreational water exposure,'' she said.
The outbreak has given rise to speculation that the state may step in to regulate fountains -- a crucial step, according to Justin Malan, executive director of the California Conference of Directors of Environmental Health. The organization, which represents 62 county environmental health directors, released guidelines for interactive fountains in 2001, although those measures have not been widely implemented.
Fenstersheib said that while the state should adopt standards for oversight, public health should take precedence.
``The more important thing is to identify the fountains and see which ones are at risk,'' he said. ``We have to take action before we do regulation.''
Contact Joyce Chen at jchen@mercurynews.com or (650) 688-7588.
