WOODLAND HILLS : Pierce Pool to Use Non-Chlorine System

Last year, the Pierce College swimming pool nearly became history when Pierce administrators threatened to close it because of a lack of repair funds.

Now, thanks to $72,000 in state funds to install what could be the first ozone-bromine water sanitizing system in Los Angeles County, the pool is about to make history.

“It’s gone from an about-to-be-closed hole in the ground to one of the top aquatic facilities in Southern California,” said Harald Johnson, president of Friends of Pierce Pool, a group formed last year to save the pool from extinction.

The pool water will be sanitized with an ozone-bromine system, which lacks the characteristics of chlorine that cause eyes to burn and turn red, hair to take on a greenish hue and skin to become dry and itchy.

Instead of adding chlorine to the water, the system pumps ozone--a pale-blue gas formed by passing compressed air through an electrical charge--into the pool. The ozone burns up nearly all of the impurities in the water. Bromine pellets are added to further sanitize it.

Pool experts say the system has been around for several years, but is becoming more common as an alternative to chlorine gas, which is considered a hazardous material. The Los Angeles County Department of Health will monitor the system--which is said to be the first one in use in the county--as a test case.

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