By Jenefar de Leon, The Vista Staff Writer

Fred Fieth, assistant director of Sports and Recreation at UCO and the Oklahoma County Health Department, said the UCO Hamilton indoor pool is at the recommended chlorine levels despite contrary remarks from UCO students.

Some students voiced concern that the chlorine level was at 0-parts-per-million at times when they were swimming.

The Oklahoma County Department of Health visited the UCO Hamilton pool house on Nov. 12 after receiving complaints that it was at 0 ppm.

Fieth said students should not be worried becuase chlorine was added to the pool on Nov. 13.

“I don’t think it’s a huge problem,” said Suzie Campbell, Public Bathing Place coordinator for the Oklahoma County Health department. “There was some issues to address, but it is safe to swim in.”

The Center for Disease Control reported that swimming pools should contain chlorine levels between 1.0 to 3.0 parts per million to help protect swimmers from germs and bacteria around and in the pool.

According to the CDC, if pools are not between those levels it can cause irritation of skin or eyes.

Some students were concerned because they experienced some skin irritation.

Kinesiology graduate Amy Brooks said recently she had some skin irritation that may have been caused by the pool.

“I had to go to the dermatologist recently because my skin has been itchy and irritated,” Brooks said. “I feel embarrassed to show my skin. I haven’t changed my soap, lotion or detergent so I know that it has to do with the pool.”

She and other fellow classmates suspected that the pool might have not had chlorine in it because the pool looked unsanitary.

Brooks, an avid swimmer and lifeguard, said that the water inside the pool looked cloudy and gave off an odor.

Brooks and fellow classmate, accounting major Tim Kirby, have voiced their concern to faculty and the health department in the past weeks to take a closer inspection of the swimming pool after a Hamilton pool lifeguard on duty tested the water and revealed the results to Brooks and Kirby that it was at 0 ppm.

“It was our breaking point,” Kirby said. “It’s very upsetting that no one was taking this serious when it is a health issue.”

Both Brooks and Kirby are concerned about the possibility that bacteria could be spreading in the pool when it is not between 1.0 to 3.0 ppm at all times.

“We are swimming basically in dirty water,” Brooks said. “We take an aerobic swimming class twice a week, and I know that the high schools and middle schools in Edmond use it, and our swimming team use it. So we are all swimming in the same water without chlorine disinfecting the bacteria from the past group that used it.”

Brooks said she nannies a student of the Edmond public school district who also uses the Hamilton pool who refuses to swim in the pool, because it was too disgusting to swim in.

“We all want to swim and have fun,” Brooks said. “But the pool is nasty, and I refuse to participate in class out principle and I don’t want to be persecuted or fail the class. But the water looks unsanitary.”

Fieth said the Hamilton pool is a salt-water pool, so it uses a salt-generator to distribute chlorine, which according to the Oklahoma County Health Department caused the problems for it being at 0 ppm at times.

The Oklahoma County Health Department said that after their inspection, they recommend the university take in the consideration of using other methods instead of the salt generator.

The Oklahoma County Health Department said that the salt generator isn’t spreading the chlorine fast enough for the pool its size.

Campbell said that was the reason why the pool may look unsanitary to swim, when it actually is safe to swim in.

Feith said that the Oklahoma County Health Department routinely makes its inspection once a month.

In those cases the pool is shut down for inspection, but hasn’t faced any major problems that caused fines or permanantly closing down the swimming pool.

Feith said that their department regularly cleaned the salt-water generator and made sure that everything is under health code.

The Oklahoma County Health Department said that they would follow up with the previous inspection to make sure that changes have been made.