Posted: Friday, December 19, 2008 12:00 am
The state and federal governments are cracking down on the owners of pools open to the public, as in hotels or resorts. The cost will be tremendous and the benefit vanishingly small but hey, maybe it will stimulate the economy.
The granddaughter of former Secretary of State James Baker drowned in 2002 when the suction of a pool drain held her under water. Congress eventually passed a law requiring modifications to the drains of about 300,000 pools around the country.
Owners now must install different drain covers, less likely to create strong suction. They also must install a second drain. The idea is to lessen the suction power.
The repairs are not cheap. For one small community pool used only during the summer, the cost runs around $16,000. Multiply that by the number pools that will have to make the repairs or close, and you get a tidy sum.
A spokesman for the pool industry says drownings blamed on drain suction take one life a year, on average.
Some say that no matter what it costs, if just one life is saved, it will be worth it. Really? Car accidents take some 40,000 lives a year. Yet nobody says that saving thousands of lives a year would be worth the cost of making collisions less likely by, for example, prohibiting left turns.
Under the federal law - which in Oregon is being enforced by the state starting now - it is possible that some pool operators such as homeowner associations will decide to skip the repairs and mothball or close their pools instead. If that happens, some kids will not learn to swim next summer, which may have tragic results later. Or their families may take them to a river or creek, with the potential for the same bad result.
Congress meant well. Lawmakers and regulators always do. But they don't always think through their plans or realize all the results their good intentions may have. (hh)