A day in the life of a Florida public pool inspector

By Lauren Broom Animals in Florida Public Swimming Pools — What Pool Techs Should Know

Which animals are allowed in Florida public swimming pool areas?

When you visit a public pool in Florida, you may see any type of dog within the fenced-in pool area.

It does not mean this dog should be there.

People love bringing their dogs with them to the public condo pool to either hang out with them or go swimming with them.

The only animals allowed within Florida Dept. of Health rule in the fenced-in pool area is a service dog. A service dog — as defined by U.S. Department of Justice and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) — is a dog that has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for a person with a disability.

The tasks that are performed by the dog shall be directly related to the person’s disability.

What are some examples of “work or perform tasks”?

The dog shall be trained to take action when needed to help the person with a disability.

Examples: A person with diabetes may have a dog that is trained to alert the person when their blood sugar reaches levels too high or low.

New Florida pool rules sign: Third rule about animals

Lauren Broom

Lauren Broom is a Certified Pool Operator Course, CPO , instructor and a former health inspector for the Florida Department of Health. Lauren has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology and is a registered sanitarian.

She has 16-years of experience in commercial pool inspections and waterborne disease outbreak investigations.

Lauren lives in Palm Bay, Florida with her husband of 17 years and their 3 children. Lauren can be reached at spacecoastpoolschool@yahoo.com A person with epilepsy may have a dog that is trained to detect an oncoming seizure and also help prevent that person from falling or getting hurt from the seizure.

It could even include a person with depression who has a dog that is trained to remind them to take their medications.

Occasionally, people want to claim an emotional support animal as a service animal to have them on the pool deck or fenced-in pool area.

The ADA does show distinction between a psychiatric service animal versus an emotional support animal. The dog that is trained to sense an oncoming anxiety attack — and can take an action to help the person avoid the anxiety or help deal with it — is considered a service animal. If a dog is only present to provide comfort to the person but does not have a specific action to help with their disability, then it is an emotional support animal and is not considered a service animal.

If the dog is an emotional support dog or any other designation that does not meet the definition of a service animal, that animal should not be present on the pool deck or within the fenced-in pool area.

Service animals are allowed within the fenced-in pool area and pool deck but are not allowed in the pool water.

The service animal is allowed only up to the pool edge to assist the person in and out of the pool.

Service animals are not required to wear a vest, identification tag, or any specific harness.

The service animal is not required to have a certificate showing it is a service animal.

What questions can be asked by the pool tech?

1. Does your dog provide a service? 2. What is your dog trained to do? How do animals affect pool water quality?

It is often said that in terms bather load, an average sized dog is equal to 50 swimmers in the pool.

Thus, dogs add a large bio-load to the pool water.

What is bio-load? In simple terms, it is all the waste that is added or contained in the pool water. A dog will bring fecal matter into the water, along with insects, body oils, and dirt. Animals often have small particles of fecal matter stuck in their fur. That fecal matter will contaminate the pool water, which can contribute to the transmission of Recreational Water Illnesses (RWI’s), such as e. Coli, Giardia, Hepatitis A, and Cryptosporidium. In turn, with the increased bio-load added to the pool water by the dog, you will use more sanitizer than normal.

This is due to the free chlorine now binding with the added contaminants and fur. This bio-load will affect the pH and consume your free chlorine very quickly.

Dog hair is harder on a filter system. It contributes to your filter having more contaminants that could reduce your filtration rate.

The lint/strainer basket located in the pool pump will end up doing most of the heavy work. The pool operator may have to do some extra skimming the following day once the hair settles.

If there is a cartridge filter on the pool, the extra dog hair may mean that the pool operator will have to clean the filter element more often.

A sand filter may need to be backwashed more frequently as well.

A pool tech can maintain pool water safe for human swimmers by maintaining proper chlorine disinfection and proper flow rate through the filter system.

It is important that the pool equipment system is operated long enough to thoroughly filter the water and chemically treat it. This is attained by making sure that the pool turnover rate is appropriate for the pool.

An operator could use a skimmer sock to catch dog hair and remove it from the pool water before it gets to the filter system.

The use of the skimmer sock could help in reducing clogs and cleaning time of the filter system.

Florida Specific Regulations

Public swimming pool regulations in Florida do not allow animals in the fenced-in or within 50 feet of an unfenced pool. This rule is even required on the “pool rules” sign required to be posted on the pool deck area. Only service animals are allowed within these areas, but service dogs are not allowed in the pool water.