News

CoCo Key's water woes could end today

By Ethan Forman
Staff writer
Published: March 7, 2008

MIDDLETON — Top CoCo Key Water Resort brass cited a lack of leadership as the reason for numerous complaints from guests of skin rashes, breathing problems and coughing fits that have surfaced this past week after they splashed in the park's pools.

Local and state health officials found too much chlorine in the indoor pools and spa and ordered the $20 million indoor water park closed Wednesday.

"What you are going to get out of us ... is a hyper-focus on making sure that this doesn't happen again," said Ron Sevart, vice president of operations and marketing for the growing chain of a half-dozen parrot-themed resorts nationwide.

Sevart appeared last night before the Board of Health with Robin Kirk, vice president of Sage Hospitality Resources, and Wayne Pierce, a Maryland lawyer on the board of directors for the World Waterpark Association and legal counsel for CoCo Key.

Sevart said it was imperative the company get the water in the 65,000-square-foot water park safe for guests.

"We will fail as a company if we can't do that," Sevart said, "And you will find we accept and appreciate the recommendations that have been placed in front of us."

The board voted 4-0 to have the resort adhere to a raft of recommendations, including stepped-up monitoring and making sure a thermometer is in the hot tub.

"We have got the last bacteriological tests coming back around noon," said Kirk, saying he hoped the park would be open by the afternoon. Kirk works for Sage Hospitality Resources of Mt. Laurel, N.J., which manages the Sheraton Ferncroft Resort and jointly developed the water resort with Wave Development LLC.

Health problems reported this past week had the local Board of Health looking for answers.

"My first question is how did this happen?" asked Board of Health Chairman Robert Ambrefe.

Sevart apologized for the problems and said, "We have a couple of things that led into this situation. One, we are a young industry." CoCo Key Water Resort was the first such park to open in New England last May.

They plan to increase ventilation and test water hourly. The problem is combined chlorine, a byproduct of the chlorination process to kill germs, has nowhere to escape indoors, unlike in outdoor water parks. One result showed levels 20 times higher than state standards allow.

"Not only do we battle the bacteria that the chlorine tries to beat down," Sevart said, "we have the added issue of the leftover battle, which is the extra chlorine we need to discharge out of our ventilation system. It's a new dynamic that we are learning to deal with."

Kirk did not fault the park's design, however.

"We used the best designers in the business," Kirk said, "which is New Wave Pools. They are here on site as we speak. ... It is essentially more frequent testing and responding more rapidly to peaks and troughs" in tests.

Since the weekend, complaints surfaced about the park, which features water slides, an activity pool, the Dip-In Theater, an indoor adventure river and an indoor/outdoor spa.

Last night, Derek Fullerton, the public health director, related a complaint from a Carroll School nurse who reportedly saw 15 kids who had been on a PTO trip to the water park Tuesday night.

"She witnessed, personally, rashes and irritations on students, some ear and eye irritations, and at that time I made the order to shut the facility down until further notice," Fullerton said.

Until he received that complaint, Fullerton said, he had planned to allow the park to reopen on Wednesday.

Problems with the park arose over the weekend when Kristen Baker of Litchfield, N.H., said her children suffered chemical burns from being in the pools. Her story set off a wave of complaints, and at least three other families reported rashes, fits of coughing to the point of vomiting, asthma attacks and strong odors of chlorine in the pools.

On Feb. 11, Fullerton went to the water resort when the Middleton Fire Department said it received complaints of skin irritations.

Fullerton found the water resort out of compliance with the state codes for swimming pools, and he found logbooks with gaps of two to three days where tests were not recorded. He ordered two pools closed until they came into compliance and warned the water park that it faced revocation of its permit and a hearing before the board. He fined the park $50.

On Monday, Fullerton received more complaints, and he met with resort officials. After finding chlorine levels out of whack, Fullerton ordered CoCo Key closed, but he let it reopen when tests showed the water met state standards.

Fullerton began to log complaints, and he reached out to the Department of Public Health's Division of Community Sanitation, which is in charge of the state code for pools. A state inspector found the pools' combined chlorine level was too high, and CoCo Key was ordered shut on Wednesday.

Fullerton since obtained CoCo Key's logbooks and found the pools were out of compliance many times in February and March, but the resort kept operating despite his Feb. 11 order to close the pools.

"We can't accept that the log sheet isn't filled out perfectly," Sevart said, "and when the combined chlorine is too high, that we don't put down that we closed the pool for 30 minutes until we got it back" to acceptable levels.

"We can't leave that blank," Sevart said.

Kirk said the "economic impacts" of the closure have not been determined, but demand to swim there has not been dampened.

"The biggest issue we have now, frankly," Kirk said, "is the biggest complaints are people are not worried about their health issues — they just want to get back in."

What needs to happen

Here are some of the Board of Health-imposed conditions CoCo Key Water Resort must meet before guests can splash again:

r It must meet chemical standards for water quality in the state sanitary code.

r Bacteriological tests must be done in the pools and spa.

r Two trained supervisors must be at the resort to take tests.

r Monthly bacteriological sampling must be done.

r A complaint logbook should be kept at the park.

r Copies of logbook pages should be faxed to the Board of Health each Monday.

r New items should be added to the logbook, including the number of bathers in the pools and types of test kits used.

r The Health Department should be notified within one hour on any pool closure.

r The facility should purchase a test kit that gives readings of chlorine levels in numbers, not colors.

r An outside professional should analyze the park.

r A thermometer must be available in the spa, and the spa should be drained, cleaned and disinfected.