Choppy Waters Past At Comstock Pool Attendance Normal During July Despite Emergency Closure

Comstock Pool, a popular place to cool off in the summer, has been drawing large crowds despite a contamination scare last month.

Hal McGlathery, city parks manager for swimming pools, said Comstock drew an average of 361 swimmers a day during July.

That is slightly below attendance in past years, but still a strong turnout considering the emergency closure at midmonth, he said.

On July 15, a swimming instructor testing the water discovered that the level of chlorine had dropped to the minimum safe standard of one part chlorine per one million parts of water.

The instructor held swimming classes out of the pool that morning.

The next day, a parent called the city Parks Department and asked McGlathery if the pool was contaminated.

McGlathery said a rumor had spread on the South Side that two children died from bacterial contamination.

To be safe, McGlathery ordered bacteria screening tests for all of the city’s six outdoor pools. Comstock’s water tested positive for the presence of coliform bacteria on July 16. The others tested negative.

Test results were received on July 17, prompting parks officials to close the pool temporarily.

While coliform is not considered a toxic germ, it can indicate the possible presence of hazardous pathogens.

The pool was treated with a high amount of chlorine to kill all organisms and then reopened on July 19, just a week before the triple-digit heat wave.

On the night of July 19, a group of vandals jumped the fence around the pool and left behind broken glass, including broken beer bottles, McGlathery said. The vandalism was discovered on July 20.

“We were cleaning shards of glass off the deck and out of the pool,” he said.

The cleaning included having staff members equipped with swimming masks search the bottom of the pool for pieces of broken glass.

About a week later, one of the pool staff members forgot to turn off the chlorinating machine at night, causing the chlorine level to rise too high by morning. Swimming lessons were moved to a North Side pool for one morning.

Since then, the pool has remained open without any more incidents, he said.

“We are back to normal,” McGlathery said.

All six outdoor pools will remain open through Aug. 30.

On Labor Day weekend, Hillyard, Comstock and Witter pools will be reopened for the last sessions of the summer.