Sweet Water of Summer : Pierce College Pool Uses New System Without Chlorine

Goodby to those hallmarks of summers poolside: the stale, chlorine aftertaste from swimming, the chemical odor on your drying skin, the red eyes, the green hair.

“Good, I hate chlorine,” said Jennifer Hans, a West Hills mother of two boys who swim at the Pierce College pool. “So do my children.”

Her boys’ favorite swimming hole in Woodland Hills has became the first public pool in Los Angeles County to convert to a revolutionary sanitation system that leaves water relatively chemical-free.

It uses ozone, a product of oxygen, to purify the pool water and a small amount of bromine, a relative of chlorine, to finish the job.

Los Angeles County health officials are studying the newly installed equipment at Pierce as a test case for the possible elimination of chlorine in all large, public pools.

“It’s a clearer, crisper water,” said Richard Kebabjian, chief of the recreational health program for the county Department of Health Services. “And there’s no problem with it, in terms of safety. The unit is very expensive, though, so it probably isn’t practical for smaller pools.”

Earlier this year, a group of swimmers at Pierce won a $73,000 grant from the state to convert the pool from a gas-based chlorine system, which is generally considered less reliable than other methods of purification. Most pools use liquid or powdered chlorine.

At Pierce, the switch delighted many afternoon swimmers one recent day.

“I’m in the water six hours a day, so I’m used to going home smelling like chlorine,” said Kelley Royer, a swim instructor and lifeguard at the pool. “This is great. It’s like normal water.”

“It’s like drinking water,” said Pierce swimming coach Fred Shaw, mimicking a wine taster as he took a sip of pool water. “Tastes good, kind of sweet.”

Installation of the ozone-bromine system is the latest in a string of victories for Friends of Pierce Pool, a swimmers group that formed in 1993 in an attempt to keep the beleaguered facility open.

Besides the grant for the sanitation system, the group has raised more than $50,000 in cash and donated equipment for crucial repairs that the college could not afford.