By WAYNE THOMPSON
An inquiry into a chlorine gas leak at the Waitakere Aquatic Centre last month has blamed a faulty pump in the water treatment system.
On November 23, about 200 patrons were evacuated from the fumes in a newly opened part of the complex and 48 were taken to hospital.
Ambulance
and fire services treated people for headaches, sore throats and runny noses. The 48 people taken to hospital were treated and discharged the same night.
Since the accident, the $14 million additions to the centre, including a spa pool, a wave pool and a bubble pool have been closed.
A council spokesman said yesterday that an independent inquiry just completed found a faulty pump in the treatment plan was responsible for the accident.
The section of the complex served by the pump would be closed to the public until repairs and testing were done, probably not before Christmas.
All treatment machinery was being reviewed and tested and staff volunteers were testing the pools.
The spokesman said few patrons had sought refunds but about 12 families were reimbursed for medical expenses and ambulance transport.
Pool staff had received further training in identifying safety hazards as a result of another review, which also prompted fitting of a hand rail to the wave pool.
The pump failure caused the pool to receive an abnormal injection of chlorine, which escaped as gas into the air above the pool.
The pool air-conditioning unit was unable to cope with the high level of gas but the Fire Service said it did not believe the level was life-threatening.
