Reducing operating costs and minimizing liability
Operators are turning to other forms of wet body contact recreation, such as splash pads, as a way to reduce operating and overhead costs (e.g. lifeguards, heating and electricity) while also reducing liability by creating an environment with minimal water-related accidents.
Many local public health jurisdictions are now seeing new design opportunities, replacing older wading pools and bathing beaches with newer forms of wet play apparatus and splash pad facilities. In fact, many municipalities and conservation authorities have taken advantage of the federal and provincial government’s Infrastructure Renewal and Economic Stimulus Funding program opting to revamp many of their aged and existing recreational facilities and/or build new wet play recreational equipment facilities.
With this comes the pressure to provide so-called ‘green’ alternatives, which reduce energy and water use. One of these options involves recirculating splash pad water to promote an environmentally friendly operating environment; however, public health should not be sacrificed to do so.
If the operator opts for an engineered design to recirculate water, additional public health risks would not be the only downside. Up front and ongoing costs would also escalate as a multi-barrier treatment and additional operator training would have to be provided. This approach also requires a more complicated engineering design and trained operators to deal with appropriate inactivation and pathogen kill (e.g. three- to four-log reduction of Crypto) to protect bathers from disease transmission and illness.
Using a logarithmic scale with a base of 10 and log-reduction terminology, the levels of decreased biological contamination in water can be expressed. For example, a one-log reduction represents nine out of 10 (90 per cent), a three-log reduction represents 999 out of 1,000 (99.9 per cent) and a four-log reduction would be equivalent to 99.99 per cent.
One way to satisfy the MOHLTC’s recommended design guidelines, while also remaining eco-conscious, is to provide an irrigation system that would collect spent water from the splash pad and use it to water nearby green space, rather than sending it to waste. The MOHLTC’s guidance document is a good start in the journey towards establishing regulations, which need to be developed to protect public health in today’s modern water parks. Operators will need to be vigilant and develop rules and safety procedures to help minimize risks to users.
Ralph F. Stanley is certified public health inspector (CPHI) and supervisor, environmental health with the Ontario Region of Peel. He has expertise in all public health areas, specifically aspects of water, and leads the region’s safe water programs. Stanley currently serves as a trustee with the Environmental Health Foundation of Canada (EHFC), is member of the Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors (CIPHI) and a lifetime member of the Ontario Public Health Association (OPHA).
