Audit Report on the Health and Safety Conditions of Department of Parks and Recreation’s Public Swimming Pools

Audit Report in Brief

The Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) maintains a municipal park system of more than 29,000 acres, including more than 1,700 parks and over 1,000 playgrounds. DPR facilities range from community and recreation centers to golf courses and swimming pools throughout the five boroughs.

DPR is responsible for operating both indoor and outdoor swimming pools in City parks. During the 2012 summer swimming season from June 28, 2012, through September 3, 2012, DPR operated 81 outdoor swimming pools among 55 facilities—13 Olympic pools, 23 intermediate pools, 23 wading pools, 19 mini-pools, and three diving pools. Additionally, DPR operated 12 indoor swimming pools, which were located in 11 DPR recreation centers .

DPR obtains annual permits to operate each pool from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH). DOHMH is responsible for inspecting all pools to ensure that they comply with the State Department of Health Sanitary Code and DOHMH’s Health Code regulations. According to the Health Code regulations, operators of public pools must ensure that the pools are maintained in a safe, clean, and sanitary condition. DPR utilizes an electronic repair tracking system, the Asset Management Parks System (AMPS), which borough repair shops use to assign work crews to perform necessary repairs for all DPR-operated facilities (e.g., playgrounds, pools, toilet facilities in parks).

Lifeguard candidates who pass a qualifying test must also successfully complete 40 hours of training, pass a CPR course, and pass all final swimming and written tests in order to become certified lifeguards. All certified lifeguards receive a CPR license and a lifeguard license, and are retrained and retested annually in order to receive new licenses.

Audit Findings and Conclusion

DPR’s controls to ensure that pools are consistently maintained in a safe manner need improvement. There is limited evidence that inspections were performed as required and that all deficient conditions were corrected. In addition, our observations of water-quality testing performed by pool personnel at the time of our inspections and the review of DPR’s Daily Report of Operations (daily reports) maintained at each pool, which records the water-quality tests, revealed that pool personnel at some of the pools––specifically at the mini-pools––may not have always tested or monitored the quality of the pool water as required by DPR’s own regulations.

In addition, there is limited evidence to substantiate that DPR is addressing DOHMH violations in a timely manner. DPR does not appear to be consistently addressing violations issued by DOHMH inspectors at City pools to ensure that the identified conditions were corrected. We found instances of recurring DOHMH violations that DPR did not appear to address in a timely manner.

Our unannounced inspections of 39 sampled pools identified 54 deficient conditions at 29 of them, indicating that DPR was not consistently adhering to the City Health Code, the pools’ safety plans, or its own policies and procedures. Our subsequent reinspections at 10 of these pools in July 2013 determined that of 21 conditions we reported to DPR, 12 were repaired, two were partially repaired, and seven were not repaired at all.

Finally, we found that DPR ensured that its lifeguards were qualified and properly vetted before being hired and were retested and recertified for the 2012 season.

Audit Recommendations

DPR should:

• Establish written policies and procedures that require documentation for all pre-season inspections conducted and the results of those inspections.
• Establish written policies and procedures that explain how the conditions in need of repair are reported and addressed.
• Ensure that all conditions found in need of repair during the pre-season and in-season are documented in AMPS to ensure that they are addressed in a timely manner.
• Reinforce the requirement that Filter Plant Operators (FPO) perform all the water-quality tests in the frequency and manner stipulated by DPR regulations, and ensure the results are recorded in the daily log reports.
• Track and monitor DOHMH violations to ensure that all violations are addressed and mitigated in a timely manner.
• Address the outstanding conditions cited in this report if it has not done so already.

Agency Response

DPR officials agreed with the intent of the audit’s 10 recommendations. However, they asserted that that they already comply with two recommendations regarding the development of written policies and procedures for documenting all pre-season inspections and how conditions in need of repair are reported and addressed. After carefully reviewing DPR’s arguments, we stand by our recommendations.