The toddlers’ pool at both the Glen Innes and Emmaville Swim Centres will reopen along with the main pools at season start, after councillors at last Thursday’s ordinary Glen Innes Severn Council meeting endorsed a staff proposal to implement new procedures to deal with contamination, in order to avoid disrupting the community’s use of the facilities.
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A consultant’s report last year on the Glen Innes Swim Centre highlighted two issues: that the pools’ filtration rate poor when assessed against the NSW Health Department Advisory document, and that the shared filtration system for the toddlers’ and main pool presented a safety issue.
The toddlers’ pools were closed in Glen Innes and Emmaville on December 15 on the consultant’s recommendation and the advice of council’s insurer that council would be found to be deliberately negligent should it ignore the recommendation. In July this year councillors endorsed the recommendation of the Swimming Pool Reference Group to refurbish the amenities area, convert the existing toddler’s pool into a lagoon and feature area, including filtration and heating that was separate to the main pool.
In a report presented at the ordinary council meeting on September 25, recreation and open spaces coordinator Graham Archibald said that the amenities renovation works are on track for completion for the start of the season, but a contractor could not be secured for the remainder of the work as many contractors in the industry are busy as many pool managers compete to get work done.
Mr Archibald said in light of two incidents of contamination last season as a result of toddlers swimming in the main pool at Glen Innes after the toddler pool was closed, it became apparent that cross-contamination via a shared filtration system is more easily-managed than direct contamination of the main pool.
Until a contractor can be hired to undertake the works (which will require short-term closure of the centres), Mr Archibald recommended the pools continue to operate as they have done, posing no greater health risk to users than has existed for many years. This is in contrast to the closure of the toddlers’ pool actually posing a greater health risk to users of the main pool when it is shared with toddlers.
A new protocol will require staff to evacuate the main pool if the toddlers’ pool is contaminated, until satisfactory chlorine residual levels are reached.
“It should be noted … that a high number of council pools throughout the state have not been assessed or are prepared to carry the risk of operating under the one filtration system at the present time,” Mr Archibald said.
Councillor Andrew Parsons expressed a wish that the same conclusion had been drawn last year when the issue of a shared filtration system was first raised, with GISC general manager Hein Basson saying it was incidents that happened after the closure that helped clarify the situation.
The pools’ opening date is yet to be announced.