You've hustled, sweated, and cajoled to get the pool open by Memorial Day. With all the hard work done, you can kick back and downshift to cruise control until the end of the swim season. Or can you?

Unfortunately for property managers or others charged with maintaining a pool, ongoing vigilance and hard work are necessary to keep the pool safe until it's closed in this fall.

Hardware Safety First

A series of safety checks, and ongoing attention to the pool area and the quality of the pool's water are all necessary for a safe summer, according to National Swimming Pool Foundation (NSPF) CEO Tom Lachocki, whose expert advice is summarized below.

One of the first safety checks is inspecting the self-closing and latching gates to ensure they're working properly—even if they worked fine last season. To test the gates, Lachocki says they should be opened and checked to see if they close and latch on their own. Gates, says Lachocki, should always open away from the pool, and there should also be no window access to the pool area, where a child could climb through and circumvent the barriers surrounding the pool.

Safety signage is another area that should be examined early in the swim season. Check to be sure that bushes haven't grown over the signs, and that all signs that were moved into storage during the winter have been brought out and reinstalled where they belong. It may even be a good idea to review the signs' location, or even get all new ones, in case residents are ignoring signs because they are too familiar.

Also essential is to check that all pool drains are anti-entrapment types. These types of drain covers are designed in such a way that a swimmer's hair, body parts, jewelry, or bathing suit cannot be caught in them, pinning the swimmer underwater.

When inspecting the drains, Lachocki says to make sure that they are certified as anti-entrapment by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

Also important when inspecting the drains is to look at their maximum flow rate, or the rate in which the drain can safely pull water out from the pool.

Once the maximum flow rate of the anti-entrapment drains are noted, the numbers can be checked against the flow meter on the pool's pump to make sure that readings don't exceed the anti-entrapment drains' maximum flow rate.

Many pool pumps are outfitted with a valve that directs the flow to either the skimmers or the main drain. If the entire water flow is circulated to to the main drain, the pool operator should check that the flow doesn't exceed the main drain's rating. If the flow is directed more to the skimmers to reduce the main drain's flow, the knob should be secured so it can't be switched back later. Also important after securing the knob is to post a sign that indicates that the setting should not be readjusted and the reason why.

The Human Factor

Shifting from equipment to swimmer safety, Lachocki says it is important to impress on parents a number of rules regarding their children when the family is inside the pool enclosure.

One of the chief standards is to make sure that parents closely supervise their children when at the pool. Even though all pools require parental presence while minors are there, Lachocki says parents are frequently not attentive enough to their children.

"Drowning prevention requires close parental supervision, especially with small children. If a parent brings someone who cannot swim, the rule of thumb is the individual should never be more than an arm's length away from the parent," says Lachocki. The arm's-length rule even applies to a child in extremely shallow water, he says.

"Even if the child goes into the wading pool, the parent needs to be there. It's not time to close your eyes, take a nap, take the phone call, chat with friends."

Lachocki also advises parents to not be lulled into a false sense of security by equipping their child with "water wings," or inflatable devices that slip over the child's arms. Floatation devices or lifejackets should always be certified by the U.S. Coast Guard, and almost all water wings are not. Even if children are wearing life jackets certified by the U.S. Coast Guard, Lachocki says parents should remain within arm's length of their children.

Another Form of Safety: Water Cleanliness

Preventing drowning is the most important concern of the pool operators, but keeping the pool water safe, particularly from contagious diseases, should be kept front and center as well, says Lachocki.

If a pool is not cared for, the pool can end up being unsafe or, in worst cases, even closed by the local board of health, he says. "Water is a terrific environment for bacteria to grow. And unlike drinking water, people get into pool water." Bacteria that thrive in pool water include those that cause ear infection, rashes, and intestinal bugs.

The scope of the problem is illustrated by a recent outbreak in New York State in which a pool was contaminated with a vicious strain of bacteria. Swimmers spread the bacteria to 36 states and sickened scores before the outbreak was halted. The numerous victims of the outbreak are now considering a class action lawsuit, Lachocki warns.

Keeping the pool safe from disease falls to the pool operator, who can be either an in-house employee or one hired by the condominium. The operator is tasked with maintaining the correct level of disinfectants (mainly chlorine) in the water.

A typical problem faced by condominiums, says Lachocki, is that the workers best trained to monitor the pool and apply the chemicals have the weekend off, precisely when the pool gets its most usage.

One good solution involves the installation of automated systems, which can add chlorine on a continual basis or even monitor the water and make corrections to the chemicals being added as necessary.

An automated chemical feeder runs anywhere from $300 to $2,000 for a 50,000-gallon pool. The addition of an automated controller, which automatically tests the water and instructs the automated feeder on the rate of chemicals to add, increases the cost of the total system to $5,000 for a 50,000 gallon pool.

Lachocki says the costs of purchasing and installing automated systems can be balanced by increased safety and even lower labor costs. "You will spend more money up front for automatic controls and feeders, but you'll be able to save money on a variable cost basis by not having someone there with great regularity to measure [pool water]."

The move to use an automated system and fewer personnel may even be endorsed by local health codes, he notes. The number of times a worker is mandated to check the pool water each day is often reduced when an automated system is installed, Lachocki elaborates.

Whether or not the board decides to go with the automated systems, Lachocki says it needs to expend whatever funds and effort it takes to keep its pool safe. "If we're going to have any amenity for our guests and our residents, it has to be operated properly. Like any other amenity that we have, it's not free. It requires the proper equipment and personnel to run the facility so it's not going to cause damage to the people who live here."