Arlington shuts down public swimming pools for hyper-chlorination treatments

by PegNews wire

The sudden action comes in response to a suspected cryptosporidium outbreak identified by the Tarrant County Public Health Dept.

Late word from the City of Arlington is that they will be shutting down all their public swimming pools on Wed., July 23, so they can give them all a good and thorough hyper-chlorination treatment.

This move comes as the Tarrant County Public Health Department (TCPH) investigates a waterborne disease outbreak involving cryptosporidium, a chlorine-resistant micro-critter whose ingestion can lead to diarrhea.

* NOTE that - according to this City of Arlington press release - no evidence of this parasite has been found in any City of Arlington pool. They want to keep it that way, thus this one-day closing in order to implement the preventive measure.

TCPH spokesfolk are going so far as to suggest that surrounding communities, including those in Dallas, Collin and Denton counties, act accordingly and hyper-chlorinate their own public pools.

For further information about the Arlington pool closures, contact Parks Marketing Manager Kelly Drawdy at 817-459-6931; for information on cryptosporidium, go here.

For more about the practice of hyper-chlorination, peruse this .pdf file.

posted by JM / info from City of Arlington