No matter which state you’re in, if you operate a public or commercial pool, you’re required to adhere to your local Health Department Pool Regulations, along with various other different state and regional swimming pool codes and regulations. 

The goal of these regulations is to prevent injury and illness from happening at your pools–so members of your community or the public can enjoy the water and have fun, while staying safe and healthy. This is crucial to their health and lives, and with them, your business. For children ages 5-14, drowning remains the second leading cause of death, after motor vehicle injuries, while more children ages 1-4 die from drowning than any other cause. Pool chemical injuries are the cause for 4,500 emergency department visits each year, while one out of eight routine public pool inspections result in immediate closure due to at least one violation that poses a significant threat to human health (CDC).

However, these regulations vary from state to state, and in some cases, your county may have additional restrictions above the state-level regulations. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recently recognized the fairly large differences in pool regulations state-to-state, and the need for a single, science-based reference guidance at the national level, and introduced the Model Aquatic Health Code (MAHC) to help standardize pool codes. In their words, the MAHC is “guidance to prevent injury and illness linked to aquatic venues — such as pools, hot tubs, and splash pads — open to the public. This guidance brings together the latest science and best practices to help jurisdictions save time and resources when they develop and update pool codes.”

This guidance not only addresses the operation and management of public and commercial pools, but the design as well. The MAHC code includes:

• How aquatic facilities are built, such as the minimum depth of water required for starting platforms in new pool construction (6 feet)
• How lifeguards should be trained and certified
• How chlorine levels need to be tested

Now in version 4, the latest updates to the MAHC recently decreased the minimum water pH from 7.2 to 7.0, for example. 

Many different state and local health departments are beginning to adopt the MAHC, and hopefully we’ll soon reach a state where pool regulations are standard across the country, though the CDC has not made this mandatory. For jurisdictions who do adopt it, they can choose to adopt all or parts of it, modify part or all of it to fit their needs, or simply use it as a reference in setting their own pool code. 

For now, it’s best to check with your local health inspector to verify the laws and regulations you must abide by within your pool operations. That said, we’re going to use this blog to lay out some of the general standards as well as helpful resources to keep your pool operations healthy and up to code. 

Additional Public Health Pool Guidance

Again, when it comes to ensuring your pool operations are compliant with your state, county, municipal, and other local health department codes and regulations, it’s best to verify with your health inspector. However, though they don’t set policy, the CDC does provide additional useful public health guidance for how to prevent, manage, and respond to health risks, including:

• How pool operators can reduce and prevent chloramines in the air
• Recommendations to prevent pool chemical injury
• How to create an emergency response plan for pool chemical emergencies

The CDC is also a helpful resource for what to do in case of a fecal incident in your pool water, including diarrhea outbreaks. 

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) also provides a great resource, Pool Safely, for parents and pool owners to help prevent drowing. You can find helpful information, including from their reviews of consumer products, as well as materials you can distribute or post–from posters you can put up at your pool to videos you can share through emails, your website, and social media. 

Commercial Pool Standards

Commercial pools must adhere to different pool standards than residential pools, including standards for suction entrapment avoidance, pool water qualtiy, and plastering.

Some helpful resources include:

• American National Standard for Water Quality in Public Pools and Spas (ANSI/PHTA/ICC-11 2019)
• American National Standard for Public Pools (ANSI/APSP/ICC-1 2014)
• ADA Requirements for Accessible Pools

If you’re thinking this is a lot to stay on top of and manage, you’re right. But, as we mentioned in the beginning, these regulations keep the guests who visit and enjoy your pools safe and healthy–and with that, make your business possible and sustainable. 

And while health department pool regulations do vary from state to state, and even county to county, one thing  all states require of commercial pools is to test your pool water at least once per day before opening. This requirement is essentially your “insurance policy” to verify that your pool is running correctly when you open to your public or guests. 

There are many different factors that go into keeping pools safe, healthy, and operational–as you can see from the MAHC. Pool water quality, however, is one of the biggest contributors. From pool chemical safety issues to controlling contaminants and disease, safe and clean water is crucial–and complex. Your pool logs of your chemical test results and changes will be checked by your health department inspector, and in the case of injury or illness, they’re your only evidence to confirm you were doing everything correctly to keep the pool water safe. 

It’s why we created the PoolSharkH20 app: paper pool logs get wet, damaged, or lost, and they’re easy to forge. With our app, you can automatically log, save, and lock pool water test results within minutes–seconds if you pair it with the LaMotte Spin and Touch automated pool tester. It also saves you the complex chemical math equations, and automatically calculates chemical corrections for you–saving you money on pool chemicals, and ensuring your pool water is top quality and safe at all times. 

When you walk through your pool logs with the health inspector, you can rest assured everything will be saved, accurate, and Health Department compliant.