Iowa Public Pool Sends Off Summer on a ‘Crappy’ Note

I happen to be a resident of Cascade, Iowa. The city is really growing and our neighbors are all pretty awesome. Our city, schools, and public spaces are well cared for and supported. In fact, a new public library is fast approaching in our community and in the past few years, funds were also poured into a new municipal pool. Sounds great, right? Well, unfortunately, that's where the latest "stink" is coming from.

Get our free mobile app

Now it's not the pool itself, but rather the way certain individuals are treating it... like a toilet. Seriously. Check it out...

You read that right. It seems that my local pool (the very pool in which my family enjoyed our season pass) has been having issues with people "taking a load off," so to speak. Even worse, it seems that these "Baby Ruth's" have been dropped off purposefully.

Read that again.

Someone is pooping in the public pool on purpose! In fact, the Cascade City Pool has had to deal with this exact situation 13 times this year! The Cascade Pool has stated,

"These incidents are not baby diaper leaks, these are people that know better. We will take serious action next season, including and up to permanent removal for the season for anyone caught pooping in the pool on purpose. We don't mean to make light of this. No customer wants to be sidelined on a hot day like today. No 14-21 year old pool staffer wants to go on a hunt for the logs and then have to scoop it up and bag it up for the garbage. City staffers don't want to have to come dump chemicals and turn on the vacuum."

That's some seriously gross... stuff. It's bad enough that, the CDC reports, nearly 60 percent of public pools tested positive for bacteria found in human feces that can cause rashes and infections. It's even worse to think someone is ruining pool time on purpose and in the grossest way they possibly can.

Good news, despite a crappy situation, most germs causing RWIs (recreational water illnesses) are killed by chlorine within a few minutes. However, chlorine doesn’t kill everything right away. It takes time to kill germs and some germs can live in properly treated water for days. This means even the best-maintained aquatic venues can spread germs. But it's hard to do that when people are pooping in the pool! It not only closes the pool (sometimes for the day), but also adds a bunch of work for the pool staff.

According to the CDC, whenever poop infiltrates the pool, Aquatic staff have to document the fecal incident by recording date and time of the event, whether it involved formed fecal matter or diarrhea, and the free chlorine concentration and pH at the time or observation of the event. Yes, it's a crappy job, and they shouldn't have to do it.

Well, the pool season comes to an end on Labor Day in Cascade, so the high school staff will get to switch from dealing with #2s, to #2 pencils. And sure, it seems funny when it's placed in a movie as a humor device, but having poo happen over and over again is just gross. I really enjoy family time at the pool in Cascade, stop ruining it for everyone. The last thing I want to do is dive headfirst into your breakfast or lunch... and I usually go off the high-dive.