Cleaning A Pool After A Flood
by Pati
It was covered at the time but now has mud/ muck on the bottom. If I try to vacuum, the water gets so cloudy I can no longer see the bottom. I have heard I should keep running the filter until it clears. I have also heard to leave the filter off unless vacuuming. Please help. Very frustrated. Thanks. Thanks for the question Pati This question is actually out of my realm. I've never personally cleaned out a pool after a flood. I'm also not too familiar with the floods in NY, but I will write this as a worst case scenario. I knew some pool guys in Arizona that worked in other parts of the country who took care of some flooded pools, but being my pool route was in Arizona where we got massive wind storms but no flooding like you have, the conversations never went too far. But this is what I do remember about it. You have to take into consideration the possibility of contaminated pool water due to raw sewage. Cryptosporidium, E-Coli and other threats might exist in your pool. I know that Chlorine Dioxide will kill Cryptosporidium and E-Coli. You must be sure the surrounding ground of the pool is completely dry. If you do have the pool pumped out and there is raw sewage in the pool, then you might have another problem with dumping thousands of gallons of pool water straight into the sewer. Emptying water from a pool with the ground still saturated might cause the pool in cave in. This is because the outer pressure is so much higher than the inner pressure given from a pool that is filled. A pool with confirmed threats need to be treated with Aluminium Sulphate. You would need to get your pH in line because Aluminium Sulphate has a tendency to not work at a lower pH level. If there are several inches, or possibly a foot or more, of mud, silt, etc. in the pool, it might be best to have it pumped out and the mud removed. But, of course, this might be expensive. Your best bet would be to call your local EPA office and explain the situation to them. Concerning your filtration, if you have alot of mud in the bottom of the pool, the filter will probably become clogged within a few hours. This is if the mud hasn't clogged up the bottom drain. Sorry that I can't be more help, but again, this is something I've never personally dealt with so I'm just giving you educated guesses. Good luck with your pool. Robert |
