Nearly 80 percent of public pools and hot tub in five states, including Arizona, had at least one health or safety violation. That’s according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control.
Maricopa County’s Environmental Services Department oversees pool inspections. Public pools are the ones run by cities like Phoenix. They typically fair well come inspection time. Semi-public pools, the ones you find at apartment complexes, HOA communities and hotels tend be the bigger violators.
Gregory Epperson, with Maricopa County, said the reason is that they don’t always have someone on staff who maintains them.
"We have specific violations that would warrant closures, and those we consider an imminent health hazard," said Epperson. "If a gate was broken and not working or the fence had a breech in it and we needed it fix. If there was no chlorine or disinfectant in the pool."
In 2015, Epperson says roughly 17,500 inspections were conducted. Of those, there were about 1400 closures.
