Recent research linking asthma to indoor pool usage only highlights the importance of good quality systems when designing indoor swimming complexes, according to City of Geraldton Aquarena Manager, Colin Hassell.
“The City of Geraldton is one of the industry leaders when it comes to swimming pool design,” said Colin Hassell. “Designing indoor swimming pools is a highly complex business and at the Aquarena we have been prepared to innovate in designing our systems to ensure that excellent water quality is achieved without the use of excessive chlorine.
“We were one of the first aquatic centres to introduce ultra-violet (UV) technology into our water management systems and this has been pivotal in reducing the total chlorine in the water required to maintain our water quality to high standards. As a result, at the Aquarena we achieve excellent water quality in our pools using around two parts of chlorine per million compared to the industry average of twice that.”
Water quality is not the only issue for Aquarena users.
“The recent research pointed to poor air quality at some indoor pool facilities, in particular the presence of tri-chloramines, as a possible factor in increasing asthma incidence rates in children,” Colin Hassell said. “Not only does our UV system totally destroy these bi-products, but we have undertaken additional measures to improve our air quality, trialling the use of ventilation of the balance tanks recently to achieve this.”
Geoff Ninnes, a director with specialist structural and aquatic engineers, Geoff Ninnes, Fong and Partners P/L in Perth, designed the Aquarena swimming pools and water management systems along with most other modern aquatic centres in West Australia and is an industry expert.
“Aquarena was designed to world best practice and also to the current WA Health Department standards, which are generally recognised as the best in Australia,” Geoff Ninnes said. “As chlorine reacts with ammonia in the water from perspiration and other human introduced impurities, it binds to it and in the slow process of destroying it eventually forms tri-chloramine (tear gas), which is the so called ‘chlorine smell’ that irritates human eyes, nose and lung tissue and slowly destroys the fabric of the building.
“Much of the chlorine in an old fashioned pool is bound to the destruction of ammonia type impurities and is not available to freely destroy pathogens or bugs. The Aquarena’s UV system breaks apart the combined or bound chlorine compounds freeing the chlorine to continue working and reduces the combined chlorine by 75 per cent The UV also kills almost all pathogens, including Giardia and Cryptosporidium and this also reduces the work for chlorine.”
In addition, Geoff Ninnes said that any combined chlorine products, which might evaporate from the pool, are quickly removed by the air handling system at the centre.
“The design of an aquatic centre involves the consideration of both the air quality and water quality to ensure that both are to the best world practice and cause minimum impact on the centre’s users,” he said.
“Geraldton’s Aquarena shines as an example of a top quality centre that has achieved this.”
For further information contact City of Geraldton Aquarena Manager, Colin Hassell, on (08) 9921 8844 or Geoff Ninnes on (08) 9321 0159.
