Pittsburgh City Council is expected to pass a resolution Wednesday requiring the city to be more timely and transparent with its pool inspections.
The resolution is a result of the delayed opening of Brookline’s Moore Pool this summer because of late inspections and the Hill District’s Ammon Pool not opening at all last year after its water filtration tank was mistakenly shipped overseas.
Sponsoring Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak said she wrote the legislation after the issues with Ammon and Moore Pools made it clear that this could become a recurring problem.
“Just over the past two years, the fact that we’ve had these delays, and last year the Hill District pool didn’t even open, so it’s time to nip it in the bud,” Rudiak said.
The bill would require the Department of Public Works to complete inspections in March and October of each year and complete any repairs during the off-season.
“They found out about an electrical problem (with Moore Pool) about a week before the pool was supposed to open due to a failed inspection,” Rudiak said.
Moore Pool opened over the weekend after a delay of almost a month.
The resolution would also require the city to make its pool inspection reports public, including past inspection reports dating back to 2012.
Rudiak said the bill would be amended before Wednesday’s final vote in order to have the new rules apply to the city’s six spray parks as well.
Although Rudiak discovered while writing the bill that Pennsylvania’s “Bathing Code” only requires electrical inspections of pools every three years, she said the city would continue with annual inspections.
According to the legislation, residents visited Pittsburgh’s eighteen outdoor pools nearly 200,000 times last summer.
