Soon to be New Pool Code Adaption

Soon swimming pool and spa code will be upgrade to provide pool safety and meet the requirements of the Virginia Graeme Baker Act will soon be available for adoption by jurisdictions and use by contractors.  The ISPSC is expected to be available in March. A while back  a seven-year-old girl named Virginia Baker, who is the granddaughter of former White House Chief of Staff James Baker,was the fatal victim of suction-pump entrapment in an in-ground spa. Because of that changes to the code approved during the November hearings included:

1. Suction fittings for all aquatic vessels must be in accordance with APSP 16, a federal requirement adopted by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) effective Sept. 6, 2011. The CPSC replaced the ASME A112.19.8 standard within the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act with the APSP 16 standard.
2. Occupant load for decks around water park aquatic vessels was increased from one person per 50 square feet to one person per 15 square feet. Operator experience indicates deck areas in these types of facilities are often very crowded which leads to concerns about egress problems during an emergency condition.

The ISPSC was developed under the Code Council’s governmental consensus process with the support of the Association of Pool and Spa Professionals, and brought together the industry’s top-notch code enforcement officials, pool safety experts, engineers, health department officials, contractors, manufacturers and others.