Is your Pool Graeme Baker Act certified?

Started by RobS • 10 replies • 1765 views

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RobS (Virginia)
Posts: 8

Posted:

Hi everyone,

I was just made aware of a Federal law passed last December called the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act. This new Federal law applies to every pool in the country and requires that your pool has at least two main drains to prevent a person from getting "sucked" onto a single drain. It turns out that almost every pool built before 2001 only has a single drain.

Here is the bad news. You pool will not be able to open for the 2009 season unless you modify it to become Graeme Baker Act approved. Here is a link to the act: www.cpsc.gov/pssa.pdf

Our pool company has given us an initial estimate of $6,000 to add in a second drain.

I am really surprised there hasn't been more of a publicity push for such a major change to almost every pool in the country. My county alone has over 350 pools. What are the odds they will all be ready for next Summer?

-Rob

DwightT (Idaho)
Posts: 664

Posted:

Before you get into too much of a panic, take a good look at the act: http://www.nspf.com/Documents/HR6_TitleXIV.pdf
In my first scan through, it looks like the act only applies to public pools (HOA pools are often considered to be private), and instead of installing a second drain a pool operator can just install an anti-entrapment drain cover. Probably a lot less expensive than installing a complete second drain.

I'll still talk to our pool guy about this (and thanks for bringing it to our attention), but I don't think we'll start making plans to dig a second drain line just yet.

RobS (Virginia)
Posts: 8

Posted:

I am pretty sure it applies to "private" pools too. Part of my issue is that we have a pool cover, so we don't have to drain our pool every year. It costs $3,000 to $4,000 just for water if we have to drain it off schedule.

(2) PUBLIC POOL AND SPA DEFINED.—In this subsection, the term ‘‘public pool and spa’’ means a
swimming pool or spa that is—
(A) open to the public generally, whether for a fee or free of charge;
(B) open exclusively to—
(i) members of an organization and their guests;
(ii) residents of a multi-unit apartment building, apartment complex, residential real estate
development, or other multi-family residential area (other than a municipality, township, or
other local government jurisdiction); or
(iii) patrons of a hotel or other public accommodations facility; or

-Rob

MaryA1 (Arizona)
Posts: 7,043

Posted:

Rob,

My first thought, too, was that this only applies to public pools. But after taking a look at the act, I see it would apply to pools in an HOA community. However, I didn't see anywhere that the act require two drains. It did say that pools with only one drain must be equipped with one or more of five additional devices which were specified. These options may be less expensive than installing another drain.

RobS (Virginia)
Posts: 8

Posted:

I have a call into our County health department to make sure they are OK with a single drain as long as we do one of the other options. The text of the act was a bit confusing.

-Rob

BradP (Kansas)
Posts: 2,640

Posted:

All I can say is it is definitely worth the money spent, ask the families of any of the victims who have had their insides sucked out. Sounds gross, but it doesn happen and needed to be addressed.

GeraldT4
Posts: 1,022

Posted:

Folks - Since when does a private HOA exclude, repeat, exclude the HOA from complying with Federal guideline? HOA pools are subject to the Board of Health codes, the borough codes, state laws, and federal laws.

RobS (Virginia)
Posts: 8

Posted:

HOA's will definitely have to comply with this new law. I was so surprised that there was virtually no publicity about it. As for your insides being sucked out, that is not what happens. The risk is that you get suctioned to the bottom of the pool and drown. Realistically this is very unlikely event.

BradP (Kansas)
Posts: 2,640

Posted:

Rob:

Actually there have been people deboweled by this...

MaryA1 (Arizona)
Posts: 7,043

Posted:

Rob,

Brad is right; as gruesome as it sounds, I've heard of that happening also. I also heard of a young girl whose hair was sucked into the drain and she drowned. So it's much worse than just having your body sucked down to the area of the drain and drowning -- as bad as that is!

KirkW1 (Texas)
Posts: 1,665

Posted:

There have been both issues of drowning (which is what occurred to the person named in the act) and disembowelment. In the DFW area last year a young girl had her intestines sucked out through her bottom. They put things back and she appeared to get better for awhile, but in the end she died from complications.

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