Jul 21, 2024 By Jill Thurston 3 min read

Water cloudiness has forced some periodic closures this season at the Mt. Lebanon Swim Center, 900 Cedar Boulevard.

David Donnellan, Director of Recreation for the township, addressed the issue at a commissioners discussion meeting June 25 and posted about the subject July 10 on the Parks and Recreation page of the township’s website.

“We regret the unusual pool closures this season due to cloudy water. When the water becomes so cloudy that we can’t see the bottom of the pool, Allegheny County requires us to close for safety reasons,” the post reads. “The simple answer is, “our filtration system is not sufficient to handle the daily volume of people using the pool.”

The issue is not a new one, Donnellan said at the June meeting.

“We have had issues with cloudy water since the pool was renovated in 2014,” Donnellan said. “Once we reach a high volume of bathers, turbidity increases and eventually, if it continues, you can’t see the bottom of the pool.”

Donnellan said the pool has experienced 10 partial days and one full day, when it was closed due to events unrelated to weather. Of those days, eight were from cloudy water due to insufficient filtration where the pool was forced to close around 5:30 or 6 p.m.

According to the post, the swim center is addressing the problem by cleaning filters when necessary, maintaining good water chemistry and vacuuming the pool by hand when possible. Short adult swims and safety breaks to give the filters a chance to catch up have been incorporated. Other measures include talking with pool professionals and engineers to determine what additional steps can be taken. There are also discussions to replace the filtration system and possibly limit attendance to residents and passholders only.

“The long-term solution here is we need better filtration,” Donnellan said in June. “The time to do this, should the commission desire to consider a project like that, would be starting in September and finishing in April so we don’t impact the swimming season. If we did that in September, we could be ready with new filtration and no restrictions on usage other than our occupancy, which we are required not to exceed roughly 1,500, established by Pennsylvania based on a formula.”

The estimated cost to replace the system was placed at $250,000.

The July 10 post noted a mistake by a staff member earlier this season while cleaning the filters that allowed “a large amount of filter media (diatomaceous earth) to flow into the swimming pool. It made the water very cloudy and we needed to close the facility on May 27 to clean it.”

Sunscreen also is a contributing factor, “particularly when it is not applied properly,” the post reads. Patrons are encouraged to apply sunscreen responsibly. Aerosol sunscreens are more of a problem, according to the post, because they are applied to wet skin. Allowing lotions to dry before swimming is helpful.