Vandalized Pool

by Cindy
(Missouri)

We had our pool vandalized! They put a bottle of concentrated insecticide, the mower gas can, gas can with oil mixture and just about anything they could get their hands on into our pool.

We have young children and want to be sure the water is safe.

What do we do?

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Thanks for the question Cindy

It's unfortunate that some people have nothing better to do than ruin someone else's property.

The question says a gas can and oil/gas can mix so I will assume the containers were open and all the fluid got into the pool.

More than likely you're going to need to drain, clean, and refill the pool.

The questions doesn't say the kind of filter, but change the sand, replace the cartridge filters, or buy new DE grids and recharge with DE.

This is the only way to be sure most of the contaminants are out of the pool. I say most for a reason. If it's an inground pool, you're going to have several feel of underground plumbing.

To clear the lines you'll probably need to flush them out with clean water and chemical solution that will strip away any residue left on the pipes.

With an above ground pool, most, if not all of the plumbing, is above ground so the process can be a bit easier.

I don't think simple filtering will take out oil and gas.

Once you've done your drain and refill, cleaned the filter, and cleaned the lines, there's something else you can do.

A good product is Natural Chemistry's Pool First Aid. It can remove oil residue from a pool. Also check into SpaPurge as well. This is a similar product for spas but may double as a product for pools.

Hope this helps and have a great Summer.

Robert