Virginia Graeme Baker Act (VGBA) and Upcoming Pool Upgrades
August 10, 2009
What is VGBA?
Maybe you’ve heard or read about it over the past several months. VGBA stands for the Virginia Graeme Baker Act. This was federal legislation passed by Congress late in 2007 designed to improve public pool safety across the country. The primary thrust of the law is to improve safety around the drains in the pool. You can read more about it here - http://www.poolsafety.gov/vgb.html.
All public pools in the country must technically be in compliance as of the 2009 season. There are no exceptions to this law. Because of the large number of facilities involved, the compliance requirement has been modified so that pools can begin the process in 2009 but not complete the required upgrades until later on. In our case, before we open in 2010.
This spring, the HPSC Board hired a local engineering firm, Ramaker & Associates, to assess what would be required to bring our pool into compliance and file plans with the State of Wisconsin. Ramaker completed the assessment and filed the plans which were ultimately approved in July by the Commerce Department. The cost of the assessment and filing was $3,500.
Currently, HPSC is collecting bids to determine the cost to bring the pool into compliance with VGBA. The board will notify our membership once we determine the cost and schedule for the upgrades.
Questions: Email operations@highpointswimclub.com or use the the Contact Us form
Additional Information about State of WI implementation about VGBA can be found here - http://www.commerce.state.wi.us/sb/SB-SwimmingPoolsWisGraemeBakerQA.html