how do you test the water for fecal matter if there was a poop accident in a community pool? I don’t think the manager is handling the upkeep correctly. There is a strong chemical smell, burning eyes, itchy skin. In both the pool and hot tub.

Question:

how do you test the water for fecal matter if there was a poop accident in a community pool? I don’t think the manager is handling the upkeep correctly. There is a strong chemical smell, burning eyes, itchy skin. In both the pool and hot tub.

Answer:

Unfortunately there is not a great way to directly test for fecal contamination. For this reason, there is a standard in place for how to handle the contamination including closing the pool for 24 hours and raising the chlorine level to around 20 ppm to address any contamination risk. Also, odor, burning eyes, itchy skin can be caused by a couple of different factors. Insuffiecient chlorine or sanitizer levels can cause all three as well as high or low pH. I would recommend testing the water for both before swimming here.