Seeing repeated major violations at your aquatic venues each year can be frustrating. Sacramento County’s Environmental Health Division (EHD) decided to do something about this. Since 2010, Sacramento County's Environmental Health Division (EHD) has held "Swimming Pool/Spa Workshop" training classes and offered them at no cost to pool operators and service companies in Sacramento County. EHD held two-hour classes on at least six different dates each pool season.
The curriculum focused on
- Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act (VGB) compliance,
- recreational water illnesses,
- inspection requirements, and
- how to avoid reinspections through compliance.
The goal of providing these classes was to educate operators/service companies in order reduce the occurrence of major violations that are related to recreational water illnesses and accidents in the over 2200 public pools in Sacramento County. Since starting in 2010, over 130 facilities have attended the classes.
After three seasons of training, our department saw a reduction in major violations from attendees’ facilities by 52% in 2010, 38% in 2011, and 24% in 2012. EHD has seen an overall decrease in major violations of 47% since beginning these educational workshops.
Because of the great success, EHD will continue expanding this educational program to
- increase the frequency of classes
- share model with other jurisdictions
- expand education outreach to pool users
- focus education on major violations with the highest frequency
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