At its very first meeting, the Association of Pool & Spa Professionals’ new Commercial Council set a priority list around regulations and education.
As part of a movement toward providing more services for companies that work in the commercial pool/spa space, APSP formed the council earlier this year. It first met in May to establish its game plan.
First off, the group plans to influence codes and standards affecting the commercial sector.
“Regulations are necessary, but we don’t want them to be overburdensome,” said APSP President/CEO Lawrence Caniglia. “We were hearing stories about how it could take months to get a permit to build a commercial pool. So in the grand scheme, this council’s going to be looking at ways to help make it less onerous to build a commercial pool.”
To that end, Caniglia said, the group will begin by working to streamline the standards out there and ensure consistency among them. First, it will combine its public pool and public spa standards into one, called ANSI/APSP-1.
Additionally, the group will continue its work with the forces behind the Model Aquatic Health Code to fix inconsistencies between it and APSP’s commercial codes – a process that began last fall. An official subcommittee has been formed to collaborate with the Council for the Model Aquatic Health Code, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Swimming Pool Foundation, he said.
In the future, the association also may seek to develop a new, bare-bones model code to accommodate certain jurisdictions. States such as Texas don’t adopt model codes whole cloth, but are required to sift through the language and only pick up what applies. “The council thought we really need to have a basic operations and maintenance standard to those jurisdictions,” Caniglia said.
The final item on its immediate agenda: Developing courses to help commercial contractors and code officials develop better working relationships, and teach inspectors how to properly evaluate commercial pools and spas.
