Parents should feel better this summer about taking their kids to the local water spray park or fountain.
Under a new law pushed by state Sen. Royce West of Dallas and supported by the Dallas County Department of Health and Human Services, interactive water features and fountains are now held to the same standards as public pools.
"Before the new law was passed, there was no regulations of spray parks, the interactive spray pools," said Zachary Thompson, Dallas County Health and Humans Services director. "Now we have some enforceable rules that people have to follow."
It includes monitoring the water on a regular basis and, unless there is special equipment installed, testing it once a month for cryptosporidiosis, a parasitic disease.
"As this water is lifted up, it has a tendency to drift on you," said William Gilmore, of the Arlington Parks and Recreation Department, which runs the Randol Mill Family Aquatic Center and three other spray parks. "If you have a waterborne illness, and there's disease in there that water can carry across the deck and get ingested, which is how that's transferred."
In 2008, there were 549 confirmed cases of crypto in Dallas County alone, and 2,239 across the state. The number in Dallas County dropped to 26 in all of 2009.
The law, which took effect May 1, requires signs at public interactive water features and fountains (PIWFs) that carry these warnings:
- Non-service animals prohibited.
- Changing diapers within 6 feet of the water feature is prohibited.
- Use of the water feature if ill with a contagious disease is prohibited.
- Do not drink water from the water feature.
- Use of the water feature when ill with diarrhea is prohibited.
"It's very crucial to educate families about the importance of following these rules when they enter these standalone spray parks," Thompson said.
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"The word needs to get out to make sure that everybody's doing their part to keep the water safe and clean," said Arlington mother Amber Guynes, who supports the new law. "I know I've got a toddler here that's freshly potty-trained, and I'm sure that other parents bring their children out here, and some of them may not be as diligent as I am about making sure that she's going to the bathroom where she's supposed to be going to the bathroom."
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