‘Accident’ Forced Closure at Twin Falls Pool

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) - In the afternoon. the Twin Falls City pool seems to be the place to be.

Becky Christensen and her boys come a few times a week.

"We love the pool. We live close and we try to enjoy it every day," she said.

But Monday an unfortunate incident cut their visit short.

"I was trying to get some exercise and all of the sudden everybody had to leave," she said.

According to the city aquatics director a child had an "Accident" in the pool and the whole place had to be shut down.

"We have to be closed you know the better part of a day to raise our chlorine up to take care of the problem," said city aquatics director John Pauley.

City officials said whenever there's fecal matter in the pool they have to act because people can get very sick.

"The biggest one we worry about is cryptosporidium," Pauley said.

Cryptosporidium is an infection that can be spread by swallowing contaminated water.

"This is a really big deal because diarrhea contains much more contaminates than normal stool," he said.

To treat the water the chlorine levels have to be increased to almost 20 times the regular amount.

"We have to let it stay for about 13 hours and then after that we can start the process of lowering it," Pauley said. "The biggest thing out of everything is that, if you're not feeling well, this is for adults as well, the pool is really not the place to be"