The indoor pool at the Arnold Recreation Center, 1695 Missouri State Road, is scheduled to re-open at 7 a.m. Saturday (Jan. 19), after a second case of Legionnaires’ disease reportedly connected to the pool was not confirmed, City Administrator Bryan Richison said.
The pool was closed Thursday afternoon (Jan. 17) after the city received a phone call indicating a Jefferson County child had been diagnosed with Legionnaires’ after using the pool.
That call came a week after Arnold shut down the pool after the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services told the city a St. Louis Country resident diagnosed with Legionnaires’ had used the pool multiple times.
While the St. Louis County case was confirmed, the second case could not be confirmed.
“We have worked in conjunction with the state, and we both agree based upon our protocols there is no need for further investigation at this time,” Jefferson County Health Department Director Kelley Vollmar said. “We have no additional cases that we are investigating at this time.”
Richison said the pool is considered safe to re-open. It remained closed today because lifeguards were not scheduled to work, he said.
Arnold first closed the pool on Jan. 10 after being notified of the St. Louis County diagnosis. The city disinfected the pool on Jan. 11 by programming a large amount of chlorine to be released into the water.
The rec center closed at 3:30 p.m. Jan. 11 because of heavy snow in the area and remained closed Jan. 12. The rec center and pool re-opened Jan. 13.
But it was closed again on Thursday because of the unconfirmed report of a second case of Legionnaires’ possibly being connected to the pool.
Richison said the city still plans to test the pool water and other areas of the rec center with a do-it-yourself kit.
The kit was delivered today (Jan. 18), but a vial containing testing fluid was broken, Richison said.
He said a replacement is expected to be delivered Saturday, and the testing should be done then.
“The problem with those kits is the reliability is not great,” Richison said. “It could give us an indicator. We will also take samples from different areas to narrow down where (a possible) source might be. We all assume it is the pool, but it could be someplace else. But I also wouldn’t put a lot of stock in the results. They are more of a guide.”
Richison said if the test results come back negative, the city will feel the pool is safe, but if it comes back positive, Arnold will reach out to the county and state health departments for further testing.
“At this point, we are back to where we were before the second report, which couldn’t be confirmed, and believe the pool is safe,” Richison said. “We are still going to do some testing for our peace of mind, but at this point, we feel it is safe after the disinfection.”
Legionnaires’ disease is a severe form of pneumonia with lung inflammation, usually caused by infection. You can’t catch Legionnaires’ disease from person-to-person contact. Instead, most people get it from inhaling the bacteria.