Many of the pool and spa company owners are well aware of the Clean Water Act and what the regulations are to dispose of the contaminated water responsibly, but are not training their technicians to dispose of said water according to regulations. In many cases the pool technicians that handle the weekly pool maintenance, opening the pools, and closing the pools are ignorant of the regulations and procedures. There are many chemicals  in the pool and spa water such as  chlorine, algaecides, alkalinity stabilizers, oxidizers,etc. that are released into the waterways and eventually into the Bay.  Not only  will it harm aquatic life, it will be passed on to us in the form of bacterial illnesses. This will eventually cause the loss of aquatic life altogether if some thing is not done. Even when the contaminated water is “dumped” in the storm sewers it is “cleaned” with more harmful chemicals such as Sulfur Dioxide and Sodium Metabisulfite before it is released into the waterways. Another thing to think about is the chemicals that are affecting the aquatic life are also threatening our drinking water supply.

There is a video, on youtube, that showed how they used to dispose of sodium in 1947:

I am glad that is not in practice any longer, but think about how much damage has already been done to our waterways. As pool and spa owners we should be more diligent in disposing of our contaminated water so as to not harm our environment. I hope this post gets attention and we can work together to make our environment cleaner and less toxic. Who would have thought  that owning a swimming pool or a spa would lead to harming the environment even further than it has been marred by being irresponsible with disposing of the water when repairing or emptying a pool for the winter. I look forward to your feedback and comments.

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Thank you.