During the week of Jan. 6, the Kedron Aquatic Center announced that its pools were closed indefinitely because a pool water analysis reported unsafe levels of a chemical not used at this location: ethylene glycol. Regardless of where it came from, the fact that ethylene glycol was recognized to pose a threat to the public potentially was a cause for concern. Cynthia Neeley, the head coach of the varsity competitive swim team, explained how she initially received the news.
“So I got an email last week from Kathy Wilder saying that there had been glycol levels detected in the pool, right, and that they were going to have to close for an indefinite period of time,” Neeley said.
Neeley was the first to receive the news from Wilder, Peachtree City’s recreation and special events director.
“So I let all the other high school coaches know, and then, of course, everybody starts googling glycol,” Neeley said.
The type of glycol that was reported to be found in the pool, ethylene glycol, is used for antifreeze in vehicles, fluids in hydraulic brakes, and ink.
“Ethylene glycol and some of its derivatives are mildly toxic,” according to Britannica.
Acute exposure through ingestion of high concentrations of the chemical can cause a bevy of health issues ranging from vomiting to death, so Kedron Aquatic Center immediately closed after receiving the water test results. This unexpected and indefinite closure impacted all swim teams in Fayette County, as none of the high schools within the county have a competitive swimming pool on campus.
“So in the morning, it’s two high schools swimming together. We each get four lanes, okay? And then in the evening, they have the master’s program, which is for adults. They have four lanes, and the high schools have four lanes. So like I practice Monday evening, Thursday evening and Wednesday morning. And when I’m in the water, Wednesday morning, I swim with Sandy Creek and Fayette high. They practice together. They have four lanes. We all share Kedron,” Neeley said.
Since the swim teams are so dependent on the Kedron Aquatic Center, the coaches had to find another facility to practice in as soon as possible.
None of the teams practiced during the search for another facility.
“Then we got an email from the PAC, the Peachtree aquatic group, their coach, sent me an email and said, ‘pool’s open,’” Neeley said.
On Jan. 13, Peachtree City’s website posted an updated statement to announce that the pool would reopen on Jan. 15. The statement explained that the results of the first water analysis were simply “due to a lab error” and affirmed that ethylene glycol is not present in any of the Kedron pools. Rather, the facility uses propylene glycol, which is nontoxic. While the swim teams missed out on practicing for a few days due to this mixup, no scheduled meets were impacted by the pool’s closure.
“All of our meets [for the season] had already been scheduled,” Neeley said.
According to Neeley, there is no backup plan in place for sudden pool closures such as this one, and the only solution would be to reach out to other facilities to see if their pools are available for the swim teams to use.
“If that happened, we would have to reach out, again, to other venues,” Neeley said.
Now that the pool is open, the swim team can continue practicing.
“[The swim team is] back on track,” Neely said.
