Nestled in sunny hot Arizona, Pima County alone is home to 2,478 commercial pools (2,365 semipublic aquatic facilities, 69 public aquatic facilities, and 44 athletic/health club aquatic facilities). In order to keep the residents in Pima County safe and healthy, and ensure that recreational activities lead to positive experiences, Pima County Health Department (PCHD) conducts annual aquatic facility inspections. The inspection process may seem obscure at first and this presentation aims to fill knowledge gaps. To better help our community, and others, it is important to understand why we do pool inspections, what violations we often see, and how we can use this knowledge to improve our inspection process and interaction with the public when inspecting pools.
When conducting an aquatic inspection, there are several important metrics that are observed because they present pertinent risks to the public. While all standards are important to assess during an inspection, water quality and physical barriers around pools are two parameters that can most greatly impact public health. Waterborne illnesses can lead to severe health consequences and the presence of proper barriers can prevent susceptible populations from drowning. With these ideas in mind, it is important to analyze the data from our inspections to see if there are any patterns, and what metrics are of highest concern.
In this current fiscal year 2,217 inspections have already been completed and there have been 1,955 recorded violations thus far. While this number may seem alarming, it is important to first understand what constitutes a violation and recognize that one pool can receive several violations. When reporting inspection results, violations fall within 3 categories: observation (where no corrective action is required), corrective action required, and imminent health hazard (IHH), which requires pools to close. Of all the violations, 58% were observations, indicating that many of our facilities are older and have structural discrepancies due to being built prior to the current code. These violations do not require any change, they are just marked in our system. On the other hand, 26% of the violations were items that need corrective action to take place; these typically are required to be fixed by the next annual inspection. We found that lack of required pool rules, an insufficient operator permit, and absence of proper chemical logs were the most common issues within aquatic facilities. The category that we are most concerned about is pools that were closed due to an IHH; 16% of the inspected facilities fell into this category. The most common reason was failure to meet a water quality standard, but missing proper safety equipment and the presence of barrier gaps larger than 4 inches were also frequently observed.
After understanding which violations are most common, PCHD has the opportunity to educate pool operators and improve the understanding of what inspections are looking for and why. By offering pool operator certification courses and building positive rapport in the field, we have already seen beneficial outcomes. There are of course many areas that can still be improved but these measures alone, especially when it comes to issued IHH’s, often help pools re-open within days. Aquatic inspections are not a process that is meant to be secretive or illusive. Sharing what Consumer Health and Safety inspects isn’t just important to PCHD, it’s important to pool owners, pool users, and you, as a constituent in whichever county you reside. Pima County wants everyone to enjoy our recreational water facilities and for us all to have fun in the sun.
Lauren Dinauer is an REHS/RS with the Consumer Health & Safety Division of the Pima County Health Department and is currently working as a program manager. She was previously a speaker at the CDC’s InFORM virtual conference in 2022 and has been a speaker on foodborne illness outbreaks at NEHA’s AEC, ADHS Foodborne Illness Taskforce, and the AZ Sanitarians Council regarding sampling techniques and environmental sampling. Lauren was recently awarded the Jacob Joseph Corby Achievement Award from AFDO as a result of her team’s successful identification of a major outbreak source and successful remediation at a facility with 44% surface contamination. Lauren has a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a Bachelor of Art in English Composition from the University of Arizona. She recently served as a voting member of Council III at the Conference for Food Protection in 2023 and is currently serving on CFP Committees and subcommittees in addition to serving on multiple national foodborne illness work groups.
Amanda Anderson’s bio will appear here soon!
Nicholas Ramirez’s bio will appear here soon!
Justin Rose has a 20-year background in the medical field as an EMT and a respiratory therapist. He earned a degree from Florida State at Jacksonville and a bachelor’s degree from Purdue University in Environmental Management. Justin currently works as an Environmental Health Technician for the Pima County Health Department. He enjoys traveling, especially to other countries; backpacking; surfing; and fishing. Justin has worked in public health for three years.