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APSP Prepares New National Water Chemistry Standard The Recreational Water Quality (RWQ) Committee of APSP is preparing a new national standard we believe will be of great use to those entrusted with guarding the public health. The new standard will be called ANSI/APSP-11 Standard for Water Quality in Public Pools and Spas. The new Water Quality Standard is being developed to consolidate the many issues involved in keeping recreational water safe, highlight the critical ones, and provide sound logic and science to back up the recommended control parameters. The ANSI process ensures that the best consensus thinking will be applied through a periodic review procedure, keeping the standard current and relevant. In 2005, APSP conducted a survey of public health officials to determine if a uniform standard for water quality would be useful. Since the public health codes for recreational water are written locally, typically by city, county or state officials, the water chemistry values in the codes have varied widely, depending on the knowledge base of the local officials, their experiences, and their local conditions. Survey respondents enthusiastically agreed that a uniform water quality standard would be very helpful to them in developing consistent, logical, and enforceable codes with the emphasis on risk control and protection. The excellent suggestions of these public health officials and sanitarians were included in the creation of APSP-11, making it very much a “grassroots” document. Like all of the APSP standards, the Water Quality Standard is a consensus standard. In other words, it represents the best practices compiled and debated by experts in the topic until a consensus agreement is reached. When writing the Water Quality Standard, the RWQ sought not only to present the values for water chemistry standards that are considered the optimal values for operating a pool or spa, we have also sought to provide justification for those values. As a result, the new Water Quality Standard will look a little different from the usual APSP standards. The body of the standard is fairly short, providing the water quality parameters and the values that should be maintained in a pool or spa. For many of these parameters, the body of the standard will consist of a single sentence (i.e., The pH shall be maintained between 7.2 and 7.8.). However, the associated Appendix records the reasoning behind the parameter selection, providing justification for why the values should be within this range. As an example, the pH discussion explains the effect of pH on chlorine efficacy, scale, corrosion and eye irritation. Throughout the Appendix valuable peer-reviewed references are included in the general discussions of each topic, providing substantiation for the values. Over its long history, the pool and spa industry has been prone to develop practices based on personal experience and tradition. However, with this standard, APSP is hoping to provide scientific justification for the values to encourage uniformity among public health codes relating to recreational water. I would like to thank the members of the Water Quality Standard Task Force who have spent many hours defining and codifying state-of-the-art practice in pool and spa water quality maintenance: Tom Berry (Natural Chemistry), Rob Berube (Church and Dwight), Geoff Brown (BioLab, A Chemtura Company), and John Weber (Advantis Technologies). They have put forth a tremendous effort to pull together all the data and justifications for the values found in this standard. A special thanks to Ed Lightcap, 2004-2006 Chair of the RWQ Committee, for his role in leading the planning and implementation of this project. We encourage you to provide your feedback and input by participating in the ANSI canvass for this new standard. If you would like to participate in the ANSI process, please contact Jeanette Smith (jsmith@APSP.org) by July 1. We look forward to hearing your comments. Ellen Meyer, Ph.D. Ellen Meyer is a Technology Manager with the Water Products business of Arch Chemicals, Inc. She has been a member of the Recreational Water Quality Committee since 2003. Ellen has a background in chemistry and is currently working in Technical Service developing and testing new products for recreational water treatment.
© 2007 by The Association of Pool & Spa Professionals. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted without written permission.
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