Terrace Park Pool Closed For Poop, Lakes and Rivers Still Open
We've all been there. You had some convenient but questionable takeout food from a gas station and within an hour or two you have a volcano in your gut trying to erupt. Sometimes you don't make it and the pool has to close.
According to Dakota News Now, some versions of those events conspired to cause the closure of the Terrace Park Aquatic Center in Sioux Falls. What the Sioux Falls Parks and Rec department called a "diarrhea incident" means that the pool will be forced to shut down until Wednesday when it will open again at 1 pm.
CDC guidelines say that pools have to raise their chlorine levels for a period of 25 hours before reopening to the public. 24 hours is not good enough, but 25 hours are sufficient.
Meanwhile, there is no chlorine in any of the area lakes and rivers and we will all go to recreate in them, even drop onesies and twosies in them, and no one bats an eye at it.
I googled all over the place to try to find a good explanation as to why pools are treated like sterile surgical suites while we swim in dung-filled lakes without a problem and couldn't find a good explanation anywhere. I'm not saying dropping a deuce in a public pool is cool, but there are lots of not-so-sanitary things in a lake and we spend lots of time in those too.
The fun folks at the CDC have a full list of things you can do to be super safe if recreating in any type of water. Grab your water testing strips that you no doubt have sitting around the house and check the water before you get into that lake or pool. Look for lifeguards or emergency equipment if there are no lifeguards, like at most hotels where pools are still fun. Don't drink pool or lake water. And don't poop in the water (that's a direct quote).
CDC guidelines also recommend using a life jacket when you are in the water, but the Sioux Falls city pools ignore that guideline and ban the use of life vests or jackets completely. Life vests are so illegal in Sioux Falls pools it is mentioned five times.