THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 5, 1996 TAG: 9605030084
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JEANNE MOONEY, SPECIAL TO HOME & GARDEN
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
HEY, YOU, WITH that garden hose at the edge of your pool.
Just a second.
Before you pump 15,000 gallons of Virginia Beach city water into your pool, there's a thing or two you ought to know.
Thing one: Filling your pool without getting municipal approval is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum fine of $500.
Thing two: Your neighbors are always watching.
But Wanda L. Cooper, water conservation coordinator for Virginia Beach, doesn't want to set fear in the hearts and minds of pool owners because their neighbors may rat on them.
Cooper would rather reason with water users in her city. The city is under water restrictions, she says. Filling or refilling your pool with municipal water is illegal unless you win an exemption from the city.
You apply for an exemption by filling out a form. You get the form by calling 427-4631.
``It's not to make anybody suffer,'' Cooper says. ``It's to keep some kind of control.''
Each application for an exemption is reviewed. ``I have never seen us turn down anyone who got a new pool,'' Cooper says.
Your luck may not be so good if you're trying to refill your pool for the third time in one season.
Don't worry if you have a spa that needs regular refilling. Spas aren't regulated under Virginia Beach's water restrictions.
Virginia Beach is the only municipality in Hampton Roads under water restrictions. No other city requires its residents to get an exemption before filling pools.
But don't touch that spigot yet, even if you live outside of Virginia Beach.
Some heads-up planning can save you money. Don't forget to call Hampton Roads Sanitation District and tell them that the next 15,000 gallons of water you use is going into a pool, not a sanitary sewer. If it's your first time filling a pool, HRSD will fully credit your account, in this case for $23.46. For subsequent fillings, the credit is 75 percent.
HRSD grants credits only when 5,000 gallons of water or more are used to fill a pool. HRSD can be reached at 460-2491.
So, you're probably wondering, where does old pool water go if not into the sewer?
Over your lawn, but only as much as you need, says Randy Jackson, Virginia Beach cooperative extension agent.
``The chlorine shouldn't be a problem,'' says Greg Lonergan, a former Virginia Tech faculty-extension agent and now a landscape designer and wholesale nursery owner.
Pool water that is sanitized only with chlorine and maintained at recommended levels has about 1.5 parts of chlorine to every million parts of water, says Steve Rotch, president of the Tidewater Chapter of the National Spa and Pool Institute. By comparison, tap water at Rotch's work place has a higher level - three parts of chlorine to every million parts of water.
Still, many cities, including Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach, say that pool water should be dechlorinated before it is drained into the storm water system.
How do you dechlorinate pool water?
Simply by leaving it alone. Three days in the hot summer months should be plenty of time to let the chlorine dissipate, Rotch says.
``Give yourselves three days to a week,'' says Mark A. Johnson, administrator of Virginia Beach's national pollutant discharge elimination system. by CNB