TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - It may seem like the perfect weather to grab your bathing suit and head to the pool, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released a report that might make you think twice before diving into the deep end this summer.
The report finds about 80% of public swimming polls in five U.S. states, including Florida, had at least one health or safety violation, with 1 in 8 being forced to close. The most common violation was improper pH levels.
The CDC says the best way to make sure you're visiting a safe public pool this Memorial Day weekend is by buying your own testing strips. You should also look at the deep end of the pool, and if you can see the bottom, that's usually a good sign.
The City of Tallahassee says they take public pool cleanliness very seriously.
"The automated chemical controllers, they test for chlorine and PH," says Aquatics Director Leslie Adams. "They also test the effectiveness of our chlorine which is our ORP value, because they're computers we go behind and check it manually every hour because to make sure we're within range. Safety is absolutely our number one priority and we go above and beyond our requirements by the health department which is just once a day um but we want to make sure that everybody is safe every hour of the day not just once."
Public pools open Saturday, May 28 in Tallahassee for the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
