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LOCAL POOLS COMPLIANT WITH NEW RULE
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 -- 12:26 pm
Posted by Riley Hebert-News Director
A couple area school districts’ pools have passed an inspection and are in compliance with a new federal law aimed at making drains safer.
 Signed in 2007, the Virginia Graeme Baker Act forces the operators of the estimated 300,000 public pools and spas to check their drain covers, and, if necessary, bring them into compliance with new safety restrictions.
The legislation is named after former Sec. of State James Baker’s 7-year-old granddaughter, who drowned in 2002 after being trapped by the suction from a spa drain.
While most support the goal of the law, its administration is another story.
The Federal Government didn’t issue final regulations until just six months before it went into effect at the beginning of the year.
It’s estimated some public pool operators will shell out between $10,000 and $15,000 to retrofit their drains.
Both Neillsville and Granton’s swimming pools passed a mandatory, and costly, inspection because they use a “spillover” system, not the floor drain system.
"We created a cooperative with a number of school systems in the state to hire an engineer to do all the pools," explains Neillsville superintendent John Gaier, "Our pool passed, although it cost us about $1,000 for the inspection."
Other districts haven't been so lucky. Gaier has heard regulators are still struggling to approve compliant covers.
"They're not even available. Some districts have asked about customizing something, but there's been nothing approved to customize," Gaier notes.
Even though it’s believed only 30% of pools around the country comply with the new law, most are still operating. The Federal Government has so far left enforcement of the act to local law enforcement agencies.
There were nine entrapment deaths attributed to pool drains between 1997 and 2007.
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