Swimming Pools Are Being Closed Once A Week In Name of Water Quality And Fighting Cryptosporidium
Last season's cryptosporidium outbreak across North Texas means there are going to be some changes at the local swimming pool this summer.
Like its bigger city neighbors of Dallas and Fort Worth, the City of Arlington, TX is going to fight cryptosporidium with a rotating one day a week closure of its swimming pools during the 2009 season.
The Arlington Star Telegram reports that:
Starting June 6, all six of Arlington’s outdoor pools and water parks will be closed one day a week for maintenance and cleaning. On any given day from Monday through Wednesday, only four pools will be open. But all will be open Thursday through Sunday, the peak swimming days.
The new schedule aims to improve water quality, provide time off for employees and save the city money on operating expenses, Parks Assistant Director Bill Gilmore said.
"All pools need a chance to refresh themselves," he said. "We don’t believe anybody will suffer, because there are other options."
Also In response to the Cryptosporidium outbreak last summer, the Texas city is installing signs at its public water parks and pools urging people not to swim if they have diarrhea. Crypto is a chlorine-resistant parasite that, if ingested, can cause stomach cramps, diarrhea, nausea and fever for up to two weeks. It is found in feces and is usually spread through water.
A few more details can be found here.
Dallas Put Its Children At Health Risk Over 0.2 Percent of Its Budget!!!
Last year hundreds of children became ill from the insidious, vampiric Cryptosporidium organism in Dallas pools. Thousands of children were so scared that the pools looked like ghost towns, ending the summer on a gloomy note. Crypto has been near National epidemic proportions over the past 3 years.
Some surrounding cities like Lewisville, North Richland Hills, Hurst, and Plano have taken the most positive, and safest approach in protecting their children by installing ultra-violet light disinfection systems in their pools. Dallas, because of "budgetary constraints", has decided to take a much riskier...and a lot CHEAPER...approach, which would allow another outbreak to occur. HyperChlorination with burning eyes, shutting down pools, and hourly pool evacuations is Dallas plan.
I called on outgoing Councilmember Mitch Rasansky today at City Hall during my speech about Quality of Life, to head up the work to get 30 UV lights installed at the 22 pools and 8 spray parks. to leave an everlasting legacy to Dallas. The estimated cost of installing 30 ultra violet light disinfection systems is about $4 million. Compared to the $130 million for the Calatrava Bridge, $65 million to cover Woodall Rogers, $70 million given to the Mercantile Building, $100 million given to the American Airlines Center, and $248 million for the Trinity Park (where has this money gone?), totaling about $600 million, $4 million to protect out children is NOTHING!!! I didn't even include the planned HALF Billion Convention Center Hotel.
Putting it another way, with an annual budget of about $2.5 billion, Dallas can't afford to spend $4 million, which is less than 2 tenths of a percent of it annual budget to protect it's children.
An investment so small will have great leverage with the morale of Dallas residents.
New York's Mayor Fiorello La Guardia is considered one of New York's greatest mayors because, during the great depression, he recognized the need to improve the quality of life of those 80% of the population under economic duress, those who made everything run in the city, and who were primarily responsible for the fortunes made by the monied elite.
It looks like, true to it's culture, Dallas' priorities lie with serving the Monied Elite.