Feb 9, 2009 4:35 PM
Pool Operators Struggle to Comply with Pool & Spa Safety Act
By Stephanie Bloyd, senior associate editor
WASHINGTON, DC -- Complying with the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool & Spa Safety Act that went into effect Dec. 19 has proven difficult for some pool operators. Hold-ups include reconciling state and federal pool safety laws and the unavailability of needed manufacturer parts to make pools compliant.
“I wouldn’t say there was nationwide uniformity at this point,” says Kathleen Reilly, public affairs specialist with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). “It’s amazing. If you call people in different parts of the country, you get different responses. Some people say it’s no big deal, and some are having problems complying.”
The federal act, which went into effect last month, requires pools to be equipped with drain covers that are certified to comply with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers/American National Standards Institute 2007 standard. To be compliant, a pool’s drain must have been inspected by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials, Underwriters Laboratories or the National Sanitation Foundation, according to the CPSC.
The act applies to all public pools and spas, including those at health clubs, YMCAs, community parks, hotels, universities, schools, apartments and condominiums.
Owners of YMCA facilities nationwide are experiencing difficulties complying with the act because of a lack of availability of compliant drain covers and contractors to install them.
“Many YMCAs are already in compliance with the Virginia Graeme Baker Act, and those that are not are working diligently to come into compliance,” says Mamie Moore, national spokesperson for the YMCA. “Unfortunately, like many other public pools across the country, YMCAs are running into challenges due to the unavailability of approved drain covers from manufacturers and a shortage of contractors who are experienced and equipped to install pool drains. Of course, safety is our No. 1 priority, as it has been for generations.”
Clemente Rivera, regional pool manager for New York Sports Clubs, is facing similar challenges in making his company’s pools compliant across four states. He says pool drain standards in New York state are more stringent than other states in his region, so the new main drain covers must comply with both state and federal guidelines.
“It’s a mess, and in my case, I have four states to deal with,” Rivera says. “We still have six swimming pools that we haven’t been able to put main drains on because they need custom anti-entrapment devices. The manufacturer says we’ll have them by March.”
Rivera says that as long as he is able to show evidence from the manufacturer that the new covers are on order, with their shipping date, the pools are allowed to stay open.
Two municipal pools near Daytona Beach, FL, were shut down on Feb. 4 to be brought into compliance, but officials said one of them was expected to reopen last Friday.
Those two closings were the first in Florida, according to Jennifer Hatfield, director of government and public affairs for the Florida Swimming Pool Association. She has not heard of any fines being levied.
“I haven’t heard much about the CPSC fining anybody. They recognize the fact that the covers weren’t available until now and that it’s been very difficult for public pools to comply,” she says.
The CPSC issued a clarifying statement about compliance with the Pool & Spa Safety Act late last year that said the CPSC staff “would like to quell rumors that we intend to bring million dollar fines or prison sentences against individual pool and spa operators. The act does allow for the closure of a noncompliant pool until the owner/operator can successfully bring the facility into compliance.”
Additionally, seasonal pools and spas that are currently closed have until their reopening date in 2009 to comply with the act, according to the statement. The CPSC’s highest priority for enforcing compliance is at pools that pose the greatest risk to children. Visit the CPSC site for more information.
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Monday, February 9, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Attention: New Pool and Spa Law
Last month, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a notice on a new pool law that became effective December 19, 2008. But, the critical law, aimed at saving children’s lives, is being ignored.
Last month’s release reminded public pool and spa owners and operators about the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act, aimed at preventing
drain entrapments of children. The CPSC noted that failure to comply with the Congressionally-enacted law could result in closure. Now, says CNN, some government agencies are not policing the law and children’s lives are at risk.
The CPSC says the law—which was enacted in 2007—requires installation of anti-entrapment drain covers and other systems meant to prevent the tragic and hidden hazards of drain entrapments and eviscerations that plague children in pools and spas. Under the law, all public pools and spas must have ASME/ANSI A112.19.8-2007 compliant drain covers installed; a second anti-entrapment system must be installed when there is only one, single main drain. Congress allowed all affected pool and spa operators one year to comply with this law; public pools and spas that operate year-round are expected to be in compliance by December 19, 2008. CPSC staff has taken the position that seasonal public pools and spas, which are currently closed, must be in compliance with the law on the day that they reopen in 2009.
According to Alan Korn, public policy director of the nonprofit child safety group Safe Kids USA, the covers prevent children from becoming caught in the pool’s suction and suffering disembowelment and evisceration, said CNN. Korn told CNN, the process is like “turning your insides basically into your outsides.” Other injuries that can occur in noncompliant pools and spas include paralysis, scarring, permanent welting, and drowning, said CNN. Regardless, it seems many pool and spa operators remain out of compliance, placing untold numbers of children at risk.
The law was named after Virginia Graeme Baker, the seven-year-old granddaughter of former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker. The child died in a hot tub at a school party in 2002. Her twin sister alerted their mother who told CNN, “The tub was just dark. I couldn’t see anything. Only bubbles.” When the child’s mother looked in the water she saw that her daughter’s eyes were shut, she was “essentially cemented” to the pool’s bottom, and her limbs were being torn asunder by the suction. “I was thinking she was tied down or caught on something,” Baker told CNN. “Honestly, I couldn’t figure it out. All that adrenaline was running through me, and I was just trying to get her out. I couldn’t understand why, despite all of my efforts, I couldn’t pry her free. I couldn’t get her off the drain,” Baker said. Apparently “hundreds of pounds of suction force” were at play, explained CNN, which reported that three adults were needed to free the child who was dead by the time she reached the hospital.
Despite this and other horrible stories that discuss similar, gruesome tragedies, including stories about children spending a lifetime on feeding tubes, many states are allowing pools to remain open and others have not begun inspecting pools and actively shutting down those in noncompliance. Some health and safety officials said the law is not being followed because their agencies do not have authority to enforce it and others, such as Riverside, California’s public health department, say they are waiting for a similar law to be passed in the state legislature.
The Association of Pool and Spa Professional notes that the Act establishes a voluntary grant program for those states with laws that meet some of the Act’s certain minimum requirements.
Solar Technology for Pools
A "Green Machine" made a pit stop this week in Surprise, showing off the latest in solar hot-water technology.
City building inspectors got a sneak peek at how the SunGrabber Electric Hot Water System works and how it's installed. Fafco, the manufacturer, brought the mobile model to the site of the environmentally friendly City Hall building under construction near Bullard Avenue and Bell Road
"Surprise is noted for their desire to go green," said David Wells, OneSolar marketing director. "It has developed an incentive program that stripped away most of the costs associated with a permit for solar projects."
The Surprise City Council last fall waived both building-permit and plan-review fees for residents and business owners who install solar-power systems. The city also is actively trying to recruit solar companies to locate in Surprise.
City officials want Surprise to be one of the state's foremost communities in solar use, said Forrest Fielder, the city's building official. "It's part of our overall strategic plan strategy to highlight sustainability as one of our core values," Fielder said. "The use of alternative energy is certainly part of sustainability for our community."
The Arizona Department of Commerce estimated that the solar industry could spur as many as 3,000 new jobs and reduce emissions by about 400,000 tons a year by 2020.
This week's solar demonstration will help the city to streamline the permitting process.
"When inspectors know what they are looking for and understand what they are seeing, the installation can proceed without any unnecessary delays and costs," Fielder said. And "one of the things the building department can do to try and promote this technology is become familiar with it."
Fielder said he was impressed with Fafco's product, which was developed to heat swimming pools and adapted for use in buildings. The company is one of many that promote solar-energy products.
"It seems to have all the necessary components but not a lot of expensive frills," Fielder said.
The California-based manufacturer uses a new polymer-based technology for its solar panels, which representatives said are less intrusive because the black, flexible strips are mounted flush with the roof. "This produce is new and has only been on the market for the past year and a half," Wells said. "Pricewise it's competitive."
Fafco collaborated with the U.S. Department of Energy on the SunGrabber technology, said Jeff Wedge, company vice president of sales and marketing. The panels can heat water from 65 degrees to 120 degrees in two to three hours, he said.
Wedge said the company's technology is in use on 1,000 rooftops in Maricopa County, including three in Surprise.
Fielder said in the past three months the city on average issued one solar permit a week.
"A year ago there weren't any," he said. "The change is pretty significant."
He credited public awareness and the city's fee-waiver program for the increase.
That Arizona with its year round sunshine isn't a leader in solar energy has to do with public policy, Fielder said.
"Other states got a lead on use in terms of incentives for developing alternative energy," he said.
Manufacturers and distributors are drawn to those other states, he said.
"Ultimately this technology will have to be tested in the market without subsidization," Fielder said. "If it's ever going to be part of the normal part of development it has to be done without a lot of tax credit and incentives. "This technology will have to stand on its own two feet eventually."
GOING GREEN
Surprise wants to take the lead when it comes to alternative energy use. Surprise is a member of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council's "Greening Greater Phoenix Initiative," a regional effort to attract more solar and other sustainable businesses to the Valley. The city has taken several “green” steps, including those outlined below.
GREEN BUILDING
A central energy plant for heating and cooling will serve both the new City Hall and the existing public safety building. The City Hall's green feature also will include light switches with low-voltage sensors that will automatically turn lights off when a room is not in use.
ALTERNATIVE FUEL
Surprise Fleet Management crews are phasing in alternative-fuel vehicles to reduce emissions among the city's fleet of more than 200 vehicles. ARTIFICIAL TURFSurprise replaced water-guzzling grass with synthetic turf at the current City Hall. Approximately 12,000 square feet of grass was replaced with synthetic turf, saving nearly $20,000 a year in water and lawn maintenance costs.
Future Pumps For Pools
Say the words, “pool man,” and what springs to mind is a guy with a pickup truck, some cleaning supplies, and a fairly low-key attitude.
But with Santa Clarita-based Pools by Ben, what you get are three owners who between them have one master’s degree (in environmental science) and two bachelors degrees (in marketing and economics).
Perhaps that’s one reason the family-owned business has grown every year since Ben Honadel began servicing pools as a way to make money while he attended California State University, Northridge.
It’s definitely one of the reasons why in December the company was in San Francisco accepting an award from the Flex Your Power organization for its commitment to installing hundreds of energy-efficient pool pumps in just one year.
Back in 1988, Ben Honadel was a student at CSUN looking for a way to make some money. Responding to an ad on a job board, he took a job cleaning pools, the perfect job for a student with its flexible hours and a decent paycheck. But after two weeks, the economics major figured out that there was no reason to work for somebody else, and he set out to be his own boss.
The business grew quickly and soon he was paying more attention to business than to school.
“It took me 12 years to get a four year degree,” said Ben Honadel, who finally graduated in 1996.
Armed with a bachelor’s degree in economics, he went to the university career center and told them, “I’m ready to get a real job,” said Ben Honadel. His goal was to work for a venture capital firm, but the CSUN counselor told him the state college degree wouldn’t make the cut. “They said I’d have to graduate from Yale or Harvard,” he laughed.
That led to a job in a bank evaluating loans, a job that didn’t last long, particularly because he was now the father of two young children and the pay was less than half of what he had been earning cleaning pools.
Once he committed fully to being a self-employed businessman, Ben Honadel said that he added more services including repair and maintenance of pool equipment.
His wife, Jill, now does all the books for the business and four years ago his brother Tim Honadel joined the company.
Getting Efficient
The history of the pool pump is fairly uninteresting. There had been little change to the component up until the ’90s, said Ben Honadel, when manufacturers switched from metal housings to plastic. This move also allowed the pumps to get smaller and more efficient, using less electricity to move the same amount of water.
“We sold a lot of pumps that way,” said Ben Honadel. “Four or five hundred a year just to people downsizing.”
Then, in about the year 2000, a new era of pool mechanics began with the introduction of variable speed pumps.
“The technology was developed out of the hybrid car industry,” said Tim Honadel, “and so it’s just basically a tech transfer with a little bit of adjustment to apply it to swimming pools.”
But this new generation of equipment is sophisticated and complex.
“The average pool man is not tech savvy,” said Ben Honadel. “Probably half of them don’t have e-mail.”
But with a pool pump being the second largest user of energy in an average pool-equipped home (after the air conditioner), and with energy savings of up to 90 percent being touted by the manufacturers, the Honadels saw that this was going to be the wave of the future.
They poured a considerable amount of time and energy into learning everything they could about how the different pumps from the different manufacturers worked.
“When these variable pumps first hit the market we were one of the first companies to buy it,” said Ben Honadel, “but we also know that we couldn’t start to sell it until we knew how to operate it.”
He and his brother took every class offered by the pump makers and learned that there was a disconnect between how the pumps operated and how to get them to achieve their “pool man” goals.
In 2007 Pools by Ben installed the pump in the pools of anybody they knew personally including relatives and friends.
These 20 or so guinea pigs agreed not only to be patient while the brothers were on the upward slope of the earning curve, but also to provide them with real-world data about energy savings.
The Honadels and the pool owners were rather astounded.
The minimum amount saved was $40 per month. On average, with a wide range of pool sizes and uses, the energy savings were, as the manufacturers had suggested, around 90 percent.
One of their pump suppliers said that this type of approach is what makes dealing with Pools by Ben “refreshing.”
Carlos J. Del Amo, vice president of marketing and product development for Pentair Water, Pool and Spa Inc., said, “I’ve been in the pool business for 25 years and most companies their size just say, ‘Tell me what it does and let me sell it,’ and move on, where (Pools by Ben) put us through a process of explaining to them the technology.”
He added that once they understood what the pumps could do, the Honalds gave Pentair feedback that helped the manufacturer improve the product and the literature.
A Hard Sell
One of the only challenges to selling the pumps is the initial cash outlay – about $1,800. Even after a $300 rebate offered by most utility companies in the area, and knowing that the energy savings will pay for the pump in less than two years in most cases, it can still be a hard nut to swallow.
Pools by Ben installed about 100 pumps in 2008, respectable for a new technology but still nowhere near the potential envisioned by the Honadels.
“There are 8,000 pools in the Santa Clarita Valley,” said Ben Honadel, quoting statistics from the Independent Pool and Spa Service Association. “There are 100,000 pools in the San Fernando Valley and more than 500,000 pools just in Southern California.”
He estimates that less than 1 percent of those pools have installed pumps that meet Title 20 energy requirements that went into effect in January 2008.
But back to the primary barrier of entry – the big cash outlay.
The Honadels put their heads together and decided to try a new approach. Rather than trying to sell people the pumps, they decided at the beginning of the year to see what the response would be if they rented them for $19.95 a month.
That means the family-owned business has to come up with the cash upfront to purchase the pumps.
“We have been very frugal over the years and stockpiled cash in the business to do something like this,” said Tim Honadel. “We didn’t know what it was – solar, whatever – and this showed up. This way there’s really no upfront cost to the pool owner. There is a lifetime warranty on the pump, and they can cancel at anytime for any reason, and we’ll put their old pump back in. We’re trying to lower all the possible barriers to getting people to cut their energy usage.”
An advertisement that began running in the Los Angeles Daily News has a catchy headline, “Your pump sucks more money than water.”
While the ad hasn’t generated massive sales yet, Ben Honadel said the phone is ringing more, and he expects sales to exceed the 20 percent growth of the previous year.
“We have a very positive attitude about hiring more staff,” he said. Right now, besides the three owners, there are two office staff and a manager of the pool service business. All other services are performed through subcontractors.
Now Ben and Tim Honadel are considered the “go to” guys in the industry when it comes to variable speed pump knowledge.
Next month, the brothers will be teaching a two-hour class on the new technology at the IPSSA trade show in Long Beach.
“It will be the first class by someone who is not a manufacturers’ rep,” said Ben Honadel. “It’s just for pool guys. We’re going to teach them how to make it work to make their job easier.”
He’s proud of the role he’s playing in bringing this energy-saving equipment to the public. The Flex Your Power award announcement is the largest thing on their website.
“We struggled for three years to bring this to the field,” said Ben Honadel, “We don’t know when it will start to hit the tipping point, but we want to stay ahead of the curve.”
But with Santa Clarita-based Pools by Ben, what you get are three owners who between them have one master’s degree (in environmental science) and two bachelors degrees (in marketing and economics).
Perhaps that’s one reason the family-owned business has grown every year since Ben Honadel began servicing pools as a way to make money while he attended California State University, Northridge.
It’s definitely one of the reasons why in December the company was in San Francisco accepting an award from the Flex Your Power organization for its commitment to installing hundreds of energy-efficient pool pumps in just one year.
Back in 1988, Ben Honadel was a student at CSUN looking for a way to make some money. Responding to an ad on a job board, he took a job cleaning pools, the perfect job for a student with its flexible hours and a decent paycheck. But after two weeks, the economics major figured out that there was no reason to work for somebody else, and he set out to be his own boss.
The business grew quickly and soon he was paying more attention to business than to school.
“It took me 12 years to get a four year degree,” said Ben Honadel, who finally graduated in 1996.
Armed with a bachelor’s degree in economics, he went to the university career center and told them, “I’m ready to get a real job,” said Ben Honadel. His goal was to work for a venture capital firm, but the CSUN counselor told him the state college degree wouldn’t make the cut. “They said I’d have to graduate from Yale or Harvard,” he laughed.
That led to a job in a bank evaluating loans, a job that didn’t last long, particularly because he was now the father of two young children and the pay was less than half of what he had been earning cleaning pools.
Once he committed fully to being a self-employed businessman, Ben Honadel said that he added more services including repair and maintenance of pool equipment.
His wife, Jill, now does all the books for the business and four years ago his brother Tim Honadel joined the company.
Getting Efficient
The history of the pool pump is fairly uninteresting. There had been little change to the component up until the ’90s, said Ben Honadel, when manufacturers switched from metal housings to plastic. This move also allowed the pumps to get smaller and more efficient, using less electricity to move the same amount of water.
“We sold a lot of pumps that way,” said Ben Honadel. “Four or five hundred a year just to people downsizing.”
Then, in about the year 2000, a new era of pool mechanics began with the introduction of variable speed pumps.
“The technology was developed out of the hybrid car industry,” said Tim Honadel, “and so it’s just basically a tech transfer with a little bit of adjustment to apply it to swimming pools.”
But this new generation of equipment is sophisticated and complex.
“The average pool man is not tech savvy,” said Ben Honadel. “Probably half of them don’t have e-mail.”
But with a pool pump being the second largest user of energy in an average pool-equipped home (after the air conditioner), and with energy savings of up to 90 percent being touted by the manufacturers, the Honadels saw that this was going to be the wave of the future.
They poured a considerable amount of time and energy into learning everything they could about how the different pumps from the different manufacturers worked.
“When these variable pumps first hit the market we were one of the first companies to buy it,” said Ben Honadel, “but we also know that we couldn’t start to sell it until we knew how to operate it.”
He and his brother took every class offered by the pump makers and learned that there was a disconnect between how the pumps operated and how to get them to achieve their “pool man” goals.
In 2007 Pools by Ben installed the pump in the pools of anybody they knew personally including relatives and friends.
These 20 or so guinea pigs agreed not only to be patient while the brothers were on the upward slope of the earning curve, but also to provide them with real-world data about energy savings.
The Honadels and the pool owners were rather astounded.
The minimum amount saved was $40 per month. On average, with a wide range of pool sizes and uses, the energy savings were, as the manufacturers had suggested, around 90 percent.
One of their pump suppliers said that this type of approach is what makes dealing with Pools by Ben “refreshing.”
Carlos J. Del Amo, vice president of marketing and product development for Pentair Water, Pool and Spa Inc., said, “I’ve been in the pool business for 25 years and most companies their size just say, ‘Tell me what it does and let me sell it,’ and move on, where (Pools by Ben) put us through a process of explaining to them the technology.”
He added that once they understood what the pumps could do, the Honalds gave Pentair feedback that helped the manufacturer improve the product and the literature.
A Hard Sell
One of the only challenges to selling the pumps is the initial cash outlay – about $1,800. Even after a $300 rebate offered by most utility companies in the area, and knowing that the energy savings will pay for the pump in less than two years in most cases, it can still be a hard nut to swallow.
Pools by Ben installed about 100 pumps in 2008, respectable for a new technology but still nowhere near the potential envisioned by the Honadels.
“There are 8,000 pools in the Santa Clarita Valley,” said Ben Honadel, quoting statistics from the Independent Pool and Spa Service Association. “There are 100,000 pools in the San Fernando Valley and more than 500,000 pools just in Southern California.”
He estimates that less than 1 percent of those pools have installed pumps that meet Title 20 energy requirements that went into effect in January 2008.
But back to the primary barrier of entry – the big cash outlay.
The Honadels put their heads together and decided to try a new approach. Rather than trying to sell people the pumps, they decided at the beginning of the year to see what the response would be if they rented them for $19.95 a month.
That means the family-owned business has to come up with the cash upfront to purchase the pumps.
“We have been very frugal over the years and stockpiled cash in the business to do something like this,” said Tim Honadel. “We didn’t know what it was – solar, whatever – and this showed up. This way there’s really no upfront cost to the pool owner. There is a lifetime warranty on the pump, and they can cancel at anytime for any reason, and we’ll put their old pump back in. We’re trying to lower all the possible barriers to getting people to cut their energy usage.”
An advertisement that began running in the Los Angeles Daily News has a catchy headline, “Your pump sucks more money than water.”
While the ad hasn’t generated massive sales yet, Ben Honadel said the phone is ringing more, and he expects sales to exceed the 20 percent growth of the previous year.
“We have a very positive attitude about hiring more staff,” he said. Right now, besides the three owners, there are two office staff and a manager of the pool service business. All other services are performed through subcontractors.
Now Ben and Tim Honadel are considered the “go to” guys in the industry when it comes to variable speed pump knowledge.
Next month, the brothers will be teaching a two-hour class on the new technology at the IPSSA trade show in Long Beach.
“It will be the first class by someone who is not a manufacturers’ rep,” said Ben Honadel. “It’s just for pool guys. We’re going to teach them how to make it work to make their job easier.”
He’s proud of the role he’s playing in bringing this energy-saving equipment to the public. The Flex Your Power award announcement is the largest thing on their website.
“We struggled for three years to bring this to the field,” said Ben Honadel, “We don’t know when it will start to hit the tipping point, but we want to stay ahead of the curve.”
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