The Case of the Missing Pool Fencing Statute

County supervisors will consider today whether to remedy an embarrassing oversight: An ordinance requiring swimming pool fences was accidentally deleted from county statute books.

Allan Metz, chief of code enforcement, said the pool safety requirement was inadvertently deleted by a county employee more than a year ago.

The missing section was discovered during a recent legal review, Metz said. It was not clear late Monday whether the statute was automatically invalidated because it was not in the statute book.

“I noticed that it wasn’t there, and I said, ‘Wait a minute.’ I backtracked and found out that someone accidentally deleted it, and now we’re recommending that it be readopted by the board,” Metz said.

Because the state code still applies, county officials believe the ordinance’s omission did not result in the construction of any unfenced pools.

But officials noted that the number of children drowning in backyard pools pointed to the need for maximum safety requirements. National Safety Council figures show that California leads the nation in drowning deaths. From January to July, Orange County experienced 14 drownings.

The ordinance would cover new pool construction, and is not retroactive. It would narrow the maximum width between vertical fence openings from five inches to four. It is based on studies that found children had squeezed through five-inch openings, Metz said.

The ordinance will affect pool construction in the county’s unincorporated areas, where about 218,000 residents live. That includes major new housing projects in Aliso Viejo and elsewhere. The Ladera development near San Clemente alone is expected to add 8,000 new homes, many with swimming pools, in the next 10 years.