The PLU Swimming Pool was recently closed due to maintenance issues. The pool shut down on September 18th and reopened September 27th. The pool was closed to replace the drain covers. Pool drain covers ensure that people, and objects are not sucked up into the drain system.
According to All Safe Pools “pool drains use suction to filter things out of the water, they put people at risk for entrapment. If a small, light person gets too close to a pool drain, they can become trapped underwater, which can lead to a host of injuries including accidental drowning”.
The PLU pool was inspected this summer and was found that it had expired drain covers. The original drain cover replacement was scheduled in the summer, however the company PLU usually used for pool maintenance had a complication. Their scuba diver had left so there was no one certified to do an underwater replacement. PLU tried to extend the Health Department requirement to December or the summer of 2024.
The Health Department denied the extension, and another company was contacted to complete the drain cover replacement. Unfortunately this company had some mechanical issues with the replacement.
Ray Orr, Associate Vice President of Facilities Management at PLU, commented on the pool closure in September, “Normally we do it underwater but it was really secured to the ground…Some epoxy may have sealed in so we couldn’t get it with scuba divers… we were required to close the pool down so we could drain the pool so we could do the actual drain cover replacement.”
The second company attempted twice to remove the drain cover with a diver before it was decided that the pool had to be drained. This series of delays is why the pool had to be closed in the middle of September and not as it was originally scheduled in the summer.
