Volume 1, No. 15. August 24, 2001
Magic's mystery
One
thing appears certain about the "gas leak" at Magic Waters Waterpark that sent
36 guests and four employees to hospitals on August 10: it was not a gas leak.
Though not entirely sure of the incident's cause, the Rockford, Illinois, park
has instituted mechanical fixes that the rest of the industry should pay close
attention to.
Five minutes before noon that Friday with 3,300 guests playing in the park,
noxious fumes began emanating from the park's 16-year-old wave pool. The pool
and surrounding attractions were evacuated and the park immediately enacted
its crisis-management plan, calling in local emergency response crews. The 40
people sent to hospitals were treated for minor respiratory illnesses and released
that afternoon. Meanwhile, hazardous material response teams went into the wave
pool chambers and emerged with the verdict that there had been no chlorine leak.
Furthermore, the chemical balance in the pool's water was perfect, said Steve
Delorme, Magic Waters' maintenance foreman.
After the hazmat team's investigation, Delorme and his staff, the regional engineer
for the Illinois Department of Public Health and representatives of an independent
engineering firm started investigating. They concluded that the water level
in the wave pool's surge pit fell too low, allowing air into at least one of
three pumps. Hypochlorous acid accumulated in the air pocket, and when the surge
pit water rose again, it pushed the pocket of air and gas through the system
and belching into the wave pool. The odor of that acid caused the illness among
guests and employees. Public health officials said such fumes are not life-threatening.
Kim Adams-Bakke, Magic Waters' general manager, stressed that the water-level
scenario is just a theory. The three teams of engineers could not find anything
wayward in the wave pool mechanisms or structure that would cause a concentration
of hypochlorous acid. Why the water level slipped was not entirely clear, either,
though Delorme said he cleaned out debris from the three intake pipes and theorized
that those "scrunchies," as he called them, may have blocked the float valves
on those pipes. Yet, while the water-level theory is the most plausible, the
engineering teams could not replicate the incident, Adams-Bakke said.
Nevertheless, the park is taking preventive measures. Delorme installed a PVC
pipe the width of the tank behind the intake pipes' float valves. "I installed
it in such a way that the valves would never go completely straight up and down,
no matter how much water was in the tank," he said. The valves would then remain
open, and scrunchies couldn't get behind the valves to block them. Delorme also
purchased a low-water warning system, and he plans to install two more rotary
flow switches so that all three pumps will be monitored. "That way if one of
the pumps cavitates or shuts down, all the pumps would shut down so there's
no chemicals of any sort passing through there," he said.
The engineers tested Delorme's pipe installation and the wave pool opened to
the public the next day. The park validated all admission tickets on the day
of the incident for free return visits later this season or next year, or outright
refunded patrons.
Wally James, president of Con-Serv Associates and chair of the Safety Committee
for the World Waterpark Association, said that no matter what caused the incident,
Magic Waters' experience should serve as "a wake-up call" to other waterpark
operators. "The message is, where possible, be redundant, verify that there's
flow going to the pool at all times," he said, not just in wave pools but lazy
rivers and splash pools, too. "Equipment is getting older, some of it is rusting.
Time is taking its toll."